THUD PILOT A PILOT’S ACCOUNT OF EARLY F-105 COMBAT IN VIETNAM
VIC VIZCARRA HAS WRITTEN AN EXCITING AND DETAILED ACCOUNT OF HIS DRAMATIC AIR WAR DURING THE VIETNAM WAR
Author: Victor Vizcarra Publisher: Fonthill Media Price: £16.99 Released: Out now
The Vietnam War arguably defined the post-1945 era for many people. It has remained lodged in the popular imagination as a conflict of bedraggled American infantrymen fighting in humid conditions, the unseen but deadly Viet Cong and the constant deafening rotor blades of UH-1 Iroquois ‘Huey’ helicopters.
Nevertheless, the skies over Vietnam also roared with the sound of larger aircraft such as B-52 Stratofortresses that conducted huge bombing raids against the north of the country. Despite the overpowering appearance of the B-52, it was actually the significantly smaller F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber that conducted 75 per cent of bombing missions over North Vietnam. The men who flew the F-105 were known as ‘Thud’ pilots, but their story has been surprisingly underwritten until recently.
Thud Pilot is written by Vic Vizcarra, a retired USAF colonel who flew 59 combat missions in the F-105 between 1964-66. 1966 was the year of the F-105s’ heaviest losses, and Vizcarra himself was forced to eject over enemy territory during that time. Vizcarra got the idea for his book while attending an air show: “I was invited to attend the ‘Legends and Heroes’ tent at the fourth largest air show in the United States called ‘Wings over Houston’. They like you to share some memorabilia and I was going to sell some prints, but my son saw that most people were selling autobiographies or books. He said, ‘Dad, the idea of selling prints isn’t good enough, you need to write a book for this event.’ I had written a memoir for my family in 1998 about my war experience, so I used that as the basis of the book.”
It is providential that Vizcarra’s son persuaded his father to write a book because his account is a unique guide to F-105 combat over Vietnam. The book culminates in Vizcarra’s ejection, but before then there are numerous accounts that vividly describe the danger of his missions. There are thrilling anecdotes of high velocities, dangerous runs on targets and anti-aircraft gunfire. Vizcarra also took part in the first counter-airstrike against surface-to-air missiles in the history of aerial warfare, and his memory of that event is a valuable resource for this military milestone.
Thud Pilot is also blessed with a large number of personal photographs and accessible map drawings that depict mission routes from take-offs, refuelling orbits, targets and returns. These touches add an extra dimension to the book and give a sense of the scale of the missions that Vizcarra and his colleagues had to undertake.
Vizcarra’s work is primarily personal, and he doesn’t just describe his combat missions but also airbase life and even meeting Hollywood stars Bob Hope and
Jill St. John. He is a generous author who gives much credit to the colleagues and family who experienced the war with him. In this regard, Thud Pilot is an immediately likeable work that portrays a modest but skilled airman who was pushed to the limits of aerial endurance, but who never lost his professionalism or humanity.
THUD PILOT IS WRITTEN BY VIC VIZCARRA, A RETIRED USAF COLONEL WHO FLEW 59 COMBAT MISSIONS IN THE F-105