When Thunder Rolled

Rating:
Summary: Another great Vietnam memoir
Review: This book is great. To be cliche, it reads like a novel. Rasimus, a F-105 fighter pilot during his first tour in Vietnam, gives us a clear picture of the life of a fighter during the 1966 Rolling Thunder campaign. Rasimus gives us some priceless scenes, from his completion of the 100 missions, to his interaction with the CIA, to the loss of his friends.

In the end, those losses, and the huge losses suffered by F-105 pilots, begged the question that Rasimus gingerly touched on. Why were people dying in Vietnam in a war no one in the Johnson administration wanted to win? As one reads this book, frustration builds. It's a frustration shared by the author. Why weren't they allowed to bomb targets of opportunity? Why were they restricted from a giant chunk of North Vietnam? Why were generals and colonels so detached? Why were men dying pushing dirt around river fords? The answers have been few and far between. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense at the time, went to his grave not knowing what he did wrong, other than being in Vietnam in the first place.

But these frustrations don't interfere with the readability of this work. Rasimus' descriptions of the cockpit, the aircraft, and the tactics are so clear that laymen have a perfect reference for what the war in Vietnam was like for f-105s. At times, Mr. Rasimus gets technical, but it is always followed by explanation. This book is for anyone interested in aviation, history, or the Vietnam War.