Customer Reviews

Lucky's Bridge

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am an old 'Buff' (B-52D/H) crew chief. I was especially interested in Mr. Wilson's depiction of the 354th TFW and the squadrons within because of a friend who served in the 354th TFW. Mr. Wilson's representation of the air war over Hanoi was strong enough that I felt as if I was in the cockpit of the famous 'Thud's' as they rolled onto their targets, amidst the AAA, and SAM's. On 11 May 1966, we lost our friend over Hanoi. He was a 'Thud' driver in the 355th TFS, and is still listed as MIA. Mr. Wilson's book helped make it possible for me to 'see' and 'feel' what the pilots of the 354th TFW endured. Outstanding series. I loved them all.

This book is out print, but worth hunting down in the used book stores. Second book in a series of three. I recommend reading Termite Hill first. All three books in series are hard to put down. Tom Wilson makes you feel like you are a part of squadron.

If you are planning on reading this book, it is imperative that you either a) read Termite Hill first, or b) read Tango Uniform after. You'll notice on the customer reviews that the only rating below four stars has not read the other books in the trilogy. That being said, Lucky's Bridge begins to follow a new squadron of pilots, and therefore brings a new cast of characters. These pilots are not Wild Weasels, which is what Termite Hill focused on, however, some of the main cast and crew return, Benny Lewis, Pearly Gates, etc...

Keep in mind that this is PART 2 of a trilogy, there is a lot of information BEFORE this book, and even more information AFTER this book. A great read, as well as re-read!

I have read all three of Mr. Wilson's books on the F-105 squadrons in Thailand during vietnam. Great Mix of fiction and history. Get the views of the pilots "going downtown" to the the generals trying to get washington to let them win the war. Also they fly the one of the famous Republic Warhorses...The Thunderchief!!!!!

"Lucky's Bridge" follows a fictitious F-105 squadron flying missions over the most dangerous skies of North Vietnam. Not a thin book, "Bridge" is still nevertheless incomplete - being part of a series and often referring to a wealth of details that could only have occurred in another book, while all plot lines will need another book to wrap up.

In "Bridge" the strategic bridges of the communist North are targeted for destruction by the USAF. Unfortunately, existing weapons and tactic - despite the heroism and expertise of the pilots - aren't up to the task. Back in America, a special team struggles to develop the first generation of smart-bombs before their superiors will give up and bar fighter pilots from attacking targets the bombs were meant to slam. Back in Vietnam (actually Thailand, where F-105 pilots were based), Lucky leads his men into battle with the weapons he's got. In Saigon, a fighter-pilot-friendly general faces two struggles: hit the bridges the North uses to supply guerillas in the south while ferreting out a turncoat on his own staff who passes secrets to the enemy. Lucky's men include Billy Bowes, a fearless young ace who can put his bombs anywhere he wants, but sometimes wants them to land on restricted targets; Manny Devera, another expert flier suffering from self-doubt; and worst of all, Tom Lyons, martinet and coward (i.e., a creep) transferred from Saigon (the Major Frank Burns of the book).

This is not the worst book I've read about air combat in Vietnam, but it's still horrible. It's obviously part of a larger series of books - and despite some interesting plot-lines (a prolonged escape&evasion of a shot-down pilot; Devera's confidence problem; Bowes illegal attacks; the technical problems facing the smart-bomb team; the hazards faced by the smart-bomb-less F-105 drivers) the book never comes together to be anything more than a collection of episodes of fighter pilots. People who claim to love this book likely hail its realism and how it makes you feel like you're in the cockpit, but "Bridge" doesn't begin to make you feel that way: while a lot of the story is spent in F-105's, the narrative jumps from plane to plane, seldom focusing on what's going on in any one of them (as Coonts had in "Intruder"), or even give you an idea of what it's like to fly one of those monsters. Wilson commits only a brief span of any one mission to paper, maybe thinking that we've already read about everything else in other books, so why bother? This robs his characters the chance to show what good pilots they are (and how they became that way) for more than a few minutes at a time. Not even the guys developing the smart-bombs get a chance to show their stuff in flight - we hear about their tests after the fact. Instead, too much of the book - in the longest, most consistent plot-line - is spent convincing us that Tom Lyons is a creep (he's vain, he's too much of a coward to fly dangerous missions, he pulls rank mercilessly, persecutes everybody, cheats on his wife, can't keep a real woman, and, conveniently for the rest of us, holds completely inept views on the subject of tactical aviation). While Lyons is the villain of the story (all without firing a shot) Bowes is hero. The story gives cursory attention to whether Bowes should be canonized or court-martialed for striking at unauthorized targets. Less vague is what happens when another pilot gets tagged for Bowes handiwork (by Lyons, of course): Bowes never once thinks of taking responsibility for the attacks given that they are now not only as illegal as they had been, but will now be used against a fellow pilot. That subplot is ironic given the controversy over the insanely restrictive rules of engagement in Vietnam - they were bad because they put the safety of pilots at risk for a few meaningless targets. However, when Bowes actually has the chance to put another pilot's career before his own (for Bowes own actions no less), Bowes stays quiet. This is forgetting how out of place the ROE issue is here - the Bridges (and MiG airfield) hit in "Bridge" weren't worthless targets as targets go - directly connected to supplying the Viet Cong. Lackluster tactics and technology, almost as much as politics are responsible here).

In short, "Bridge" is over-long and under plotted, deriving too little from the dynamics of the air war than from its own wildly implausible characters. If realism is what you need, read a real book like "Thud Ridge" by Jack Broughton instead.