Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea

by David Sears

Overview

In 1951, James Michener went to Korea to report on a little known aspect of America's stalemated war: navy aviators. His research inspired novel about these pilots became an overnight bestseller and, perhaps, the most widely read book ever written about aerial combat.

Using Michener's notes, author David Sears tracked down the actual pilots to tell their riveting, true-life stories. From the icy, windswept decks of aircraft carriers, they penetrated treacherous mountain terrain to strike heavily defended dams, bridges, and tunnels, where well entrenched Communist anti-aircraft gunners waited to shoot them down. Many of these men became air combat legends, and one, Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon.

Such Men As These brims with action-packed accounts of combat and unforgettable portraits of the pilots whose skill and sacrifice made epic history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306820106
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	10/04/2011
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	493,943
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

A former US Navy officer and a Vietnam War veteran, David Sears is the author of four previous books, including Such Men as These. He lives in New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

Smithsonian Air & Space magazine, July 2011

“A valuable study of the culture and conduct of the naval air war over North Korea…A fitting addition not only to the literature of the Korean War, but also to the literature emerging in this, the centennial year of U.S. naval aviation.”

Collected Miscellany, 7/8/11
“A great tribute to the U.S. Navy pilots who flew in the ‘Forgotten War.'”

Michigan War Studies Review, 5/16/14
“The author has…done a service to both students and veterans of the Korean War…Sears's account poignantly proves that the pilots faced missions as perilous as those of any infantryman. The narrative…places readers in the cockpit, feeling the sensations and stress of aerial combat…Present-day military personnel will find in Such Men As These much that is instructive regarding wartime leadership and the resilience and courage of men fighting a war to which the American public paid little attention.

From the Publisher

Quality military history of naval aviation during the Korean War. Historians traditionally bemoan America's enthusiastic disarmament after World War II, and former U.S. Navy officer Sears (At War with the Wind: The Epic Struggle with Japan's World War II Suicide Bombers, 2008, etc.) does not rock the boat. Budgets shrank, both draftees and skilled career men were discharged, ships were scrapped and vital military-technology research-jets, helicopters, new carrier designs-was shelved. North Korea's 1950 invasion of the South found the United States with only a single, old aircraft carrier in the Pacific. After a scramble to refurbish the ships, recall reservists and spend generous new appropriations, Navy leaders assembled an impressive fleet that rained destruction on the North. As with Vietnam, North Korea was a poor, agricultural country with few of the key industrial targets bombers prefer, so airmen concentrated on railroads, bridges, tunnels and road traffic, which provided only occasional dramatic destruction in exchange for a steady stream of casualties. Sears does not shy away from politics and technical developments, but he focuses on an almost day-to-day account of carrier ground-attack missions. He follows the lives of a dozen Navy airmen, painting a vivid picture of their background, flight training and problems flying obsolete propeller aircraft, rudimentary early jets and the first futuristic but alarmingly dangerous helicopters. The author includes the moving story of the first black naval aviator, as well as the horrendous experience of several pilots taken prisoner. Military buffs will enjoy the nuts-and-bolts battle details, but Sears also offers a solid general history of naval air warfare. Agent: Jim McCarthy/Dystel & Goderich

Kirkus Reviews