The widely anticipated memoir of legendary ace and Cold Warrior American fighter pilot, Robin Olds

The widely anticipated memoir of legendary ace and Cold Warrior American fighter pilot, Robin Olds

The widely anticipated memoir of legendary ace American fighter pilot, Robin Olds

Robin Olds was a larger-than-life hero with a towering personality. A graduate of West Point and an inductee in the National College Football Hall of Fame for his All-American performance for Army, Olds was one of the toughest college football players at the time. In WWII, Olds quickly became a top fighter pilot and squadron commander by the age of 22—and an ace with 12 aerial victories.

But it was in Vietnam where the man became a legend. He arrived in 1966 to find a dejected group of pilots and motivated them by placing himself on the flight schedule under officers junior to himself, then challenging them to train him properly because he would soon be leading them. Proving he wasn't a WWII retread, he led the wing with aggressiveness, scoring another four confirmed kills, becoming a rare triple ace.

Olds (who retired a brigadier general and died in 2007) was a unique individual whose personal story is one of the most eagerly anticipated military books of the year.

	Colonel Olds (first row, third from left) with the 8th TFW Satan's Angels squadron. (U.S. Air Force Photo)
	After downing a MiG, Colonel Olds with the May 4, 1967 mission flight members
	Colonel Olds waving to the troops after his final mission September 1967. (U.S. Air Force Photo)
	The famous Robin Olds "finger" at the final mission celebration in the Ubon officers club. (U.S. Air Force Photo)
	Debriefing the Chiefs of Staff after the meeting with LBJ. (Department of Defense Photo)
	SCAT XXVII comes home to rest at the National Air Force Museum in 1988, its battle scars honorably intact. Robin insisted the museum not repair or clean his Phantom. (Air Force Museum Photo)