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

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

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. Few aspects of the ostensibly forgotten Korean War are more so than the role naval aviation played in it. About all most who have heard of it comes from James Michener's The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1953). Sears covers the writing of that novel, also the rest of the navy's air war over and around Korea, which included the first use of carrier-based jets (for which of the era weren't ideal), the last hurrah of the F4U Corsair, and the Golden Age of the AD Skyraider. Naval aviation deployment stretched from almost the first days of the war to battles with Russian MiGs off Vladivostok toward its end. Close support was invaluable, but interdiction involved fighting lots of low-tech, well-defended transportation links with high-tech, vulnerable aircraft, which proved to be a foretaste of Vietnam. Eminently readable, this volume breaks new ground on the Korean War and naval aviation. --Roland Green 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.” David Sears is a former U.S. Navy officer and the author of three previous books, including At War With the Wind and The Last Epic Naval Battle . He lives in northern New Jersey.