Air Commando: Fifty Years of the Usaf Air Commando and Special Operations Forces, 1944-1994

Naval Institute Special Warfare Series

by Philip D. Chinnery

An insider's profile of the Air Force Special Operations Command cites such historical achievements as their efforts on the Ho Chi Minh Trail to their close-call rescues and landings in Desert Storm. Reprint.

Genres: Military Fiction, History

367 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 22, 1994

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly, if you are a member of AFSOC or plan to be, this book, Air Commando: Inside The Air Force Special Operations Command, is for you. It traces the evolution of special ops in the air from WWII to Vietnam to just after Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. Also read this book if you like hearing history and war stories from the guys who were there. Air Force Special Operations Command motto, “Any Time, Any Place”, came from a British unit commander when 4 British and 3 American troops were killed in a training accident preparing for Wingate’s second irregular warfare effort, Operation Thursday, in Burma. The commander sent a note to the Americans not to worry about the accident “please be assured we will go with your boys Any Place, Any Time, Any Where.”

At the start of Orde Wingate’s second irregular warfare effort, Operation Thursday, in Burma, the forces landed in jungle clearing with the intention to build short airstrips to resupply, fly in additional troops, evacuate wounded. Here is a recounting of one hair-raising glider landing:

“There was a glider with a bulldozer lashed behind the pilot and copilot in the passenger space. When landing, the pilot turned left to avoid wreckage, overshot and crashed into a clump of trees. The fuselage went between the only two trees that were wide enough apart to let it through. As it skidded along at 100 miles an hour, both wings were ripped off and the fuselage continued alone with the bulldozer turned loose inside. When the fuselage finally came to a halt, the momentum carried the machinery forward towards the cockpit. Fortunately it had been rigged to elevate the nose section in such an eventuality, and the hinged cockpit was yanked skywards as the bulldozer roared out underneath the pilot’s seats, crashing through the jungle for another 50 yards. The nose flipped back into place with the pilot and copilot still in their seats. The Yank pilot looked the crash over for a moment and nodded sagely, “I planned it just that way.”

The first combat rescue by this aircraft took place during Operation Thursday in Burma. I did not know this until now.
2Lt Carter Harman took his YR-4 helicopter from India into Burma to rescue an American pilot and 3 wounded British soldiers whose L-1 airplane had been shot down a long way from the nearest ground forces. The story of the rescue is fascinating as he can only pick up one soldier at a time while the Japanese are searching for them. And his little “egg-beater” is straining in the higher elevations. Very interesting story.”

Some good Vietnam era stuff is here like this from C-123 Candlestick missions over the Ho Chi Minh trail: “We didn’t have any armour on the ‘123s and we were slow. We used to joke around that evasive action consisted of running around the cargo compartment. You only got upset when both pilots were in the back evading at the same time.”

Or this from an A-37 Dragonfly mission hunting trucks just north of the DMZ:

Just west of Dong Hoi Lew spotted a truck through the scud below. I cleared him in and followed. He fired as I broke through in trail and I spotted the last of the fire behind him and from his nine o’clock. He hadn’t seen the gun, but they had ranged in on him and were dead on me and I took two rounds in the engine.

Since it was burning a bit better than it was running, I called ‘24’ and left the machine, sans Yankee. (We did not have the Yankee extraction system, then, we had the original low altitude egress system: aluminum and fingernails).

This book traces the hard lessons learned about unconventional warfare in WWII, how we left them in the trash can after that war and had to relearn them all over again in Vietnam, did amazing things there and forgot more of them again, tried to rescue the Iranian hostages, failed, and many bureaucratic battles later finally got special ops recognized as a separate command. The book ends in the early 90’s so we get very little from the 1st Gulf War (most of the missions were probably still classified at the time). But there are many excellent stories from missions like the Son Tay Raid, Op Just Cause, operations in Laos and Cambodia, rescuing Chindits in Burma, etc. Fixed wing and rotary wing pilots will enjoy the war stories.

You will get a history and detailed tracing of each squadron, unit, wing, group through the years, which may not be very interesting to many but doesn’t detract from the narrative. I liked how he took the time to mention the names of all the crewmembers lost when a plane was shot down or lost. Nice touch. You will however, have to wade through misspelled words like armour, valour, whilst, amongst, learnt, etc. I mean the guy is a Canadian, why couldn’t he write the way the rest of us North Americans write, huh? Well, he does justice otherwise to the topic. A great collection of war stories and good reference book at the same time. 4 Stars easy—would have been 5 Stars with some decent maps.

[Scottnshana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, interesting collection of narratives from Air Commandos from the Second World War to Desert Storm, this book is worth the read for anyone with an interest in Special Operations and the USAF's role in unconventional ("small") wars; it also wouldn't be a bad idea to hand off a copy to anyone going to AFSOC. The war stories inside are excellent, as Chinnery describes the evolution of Air Commandos from the units providing air support to British Chindits in WWII to the diverse roles and missions in Viet Nam and the Community's accomplishments into the 1990s. Significant events are covered--all the Medals of Honor (Fisher, Fleming, Levitow, i.e.), the catastrophes like Desert One and Spirit 03, and the emergence of big personalities who led the Air Commandos like Aderholt, Alison, and Cochran. In future editions, I think the book could use some better maps (i.e., the China-Burma-India Theater, Laos, Grenada) to help describe the unit bed-downs and areas of operation. I was also a little surprised at only two paragraphs devoted to the Korean War. On the whole, however, I think "Air Commando" stacks up well alongside "Apollo's Warriors" by Michael Haas and certainly Corum/Johnson's "Airpower in Small Wars..." as good history on this not-so-famous but essential facet of air warfare.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of new information .

[Graham Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stirring exposé on these fearsome warriors. I read this book on the recommendation that it was "pretty good," not knowing what I was in for. Page by page, I began to understand that I would never be as virile or handsome as these death dealers of the sky. Thrilling exploits and daring tales behind bars, babes, and bandits keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time.

10/10 would read again.