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5.0 out of 5 stars
I was there and discovered Jonothan in the night flight, Mar 5 2002
In 1961 the world was about to go to war over a simple, but deadly game of nuclear bluff. The Russians were about to sign a seperate peace treaty with East Germany. So? Well, since the U.S., Brits, France and the Russians were all allies aftrer WWII, they could not unilaterally do that! In the new cold war era however, the Russians, trying to secure their idiological communist empire, perhaps as a buffer to any future invasions from the West, had taken their sector of Berlin...and East Germany, and made it their own...and to prove it they were going to sign a seperate peace without their allies. So, we called their bluff...and within 24 days of notification in the late summer of 1961, thousands of Guardsmen and allied military were activated and put muzzle to muzzle with the Russians and other Easter Block countries with a deadline of January 1, 1962 for the Russians to blink or unleash the dogs of war. Luckily for all of us, they blinked. I was with the 113th TFS from Indiana that flew the Atlantic in F-84Fs and opened Chambley Field in France. We flew the same skies, missions, and aircraft and lousey weather as Richard. We had mixed emotions about the opportunity to fly and test our aircraft for real, but apprehension about leaving our civilian jobs, homes and families to face an potential enemy that only a few years before had been our ally. We all worried through the cold winter night before the deadline, with a one way flight plan and realization that there would be no field left for us to return to if the baloon went up...and, perhaps no world as we knew it either. I think the world learned a lesson from that experience...more need to read about it...and we must never forget. Richard's detailed and flowing discription of the aircraft, arena, bases, missions, and joy of flight stimulating and nostalgic. Whenever I want to relive that little known and appreciated bookmark in history and the personal feeling of the experience, I reread Stranger...it is like an old friend...it also introduced me to a life of adventure, philosophy, mysticism and awe as a fan of this unique writer...he was, and still is an inspiration for my continuing journey of understanding of life, relationships, self examination and love of aviation. He is every-airman, but relates life better than any-man. Bravo Bach!
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