Phantom Over Vietnam: Fighter Pilot, USMC [Paperback]

John Trotti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1996

Two-tour Marine F-4 jock John Trotti brings out the frustrations and bravery of the American aerial warrior in Vietnam.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891415998
• ISBN-13: 978-0891415992
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,668,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars intensely personal view of vietnam air war, October 12, 1999

By 

harold caliguiri ([e-mail]) (Vacaville,Calif) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phantom Over Vietnam: Fighter Pilot, USMC (Paperback)

This book covers the authors two tours of vietnam flying f-4s. The story is told on two levels, one being the personal development and maturing of a young fighter pilot world view regarding his feelings about what and why we were " there " in the first place and the second is a veritable flight manual of the f-4 phantom. Remarkably, he manages to hold our interest while describing the political climate and the way it changed so drastically during his second tour of vietnam, no mean feat when considering how many books on vietnam exist out there now(opposed to 1982 when major trotti wrote this. The real heart of this book is the f-4 and trotti gets you in the pilot seat like few others (lindberg comes to mind and of course pappy boyington) have done. trotti is a serious engineer type and his explanations of every phase of the mission are so detailed that you need to re-read some of it to keep it up front so to speak. nursing a wounded bird back as close to the sea as possible in an attempt to protect them from being captured by the north and calculating times and distances against a bad fuel leak and hydraulic system failure, finnaly ejecting moments before the plane "departs control" is told with restrained emotion and a dramatic tightness surprising in an "amatuer" author. this is a great book well worht the hunt required to find it via the net...5 stars Cal Caligiuri, Vacaville,Ca.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uncommon fighter pilot's memoir, March 7, 2001

By 

Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phantom Over Vietnam: Fighter Pilot, USMC (Paperback)

I read "Phantom Over Vietnam", the memoir of a Marine fighter pilot, before plunging into the mounds of similar books on the subject of the Vietnam Air War, both novel and memoir. Thus I couldn't appreciate how the book was unique. Most authors on the subject generalize the air war - the technology and tactics - while highlighting the overt civilian control of a war being fought based on political rather than military goals. While Trotti raises those issues, he never turns his book into an indictment on the Johnson administration, Rob McNamara's Defense Department "whiz-kids", or the liberals who others have blamed for undermining the war effort - concluding that the war was futile. The book follows Trotti from his arrival in Vietnam in the war's early and heady days, then notes the apparent changes when the optimism fades. After an interval spent training newer aviators stateside, Trotti returns for more. His descriptions of the flights are weighthed down by detail on such topics as the F-4 Phantom's mechanics, aero-navigation and airborne communications protocol (which is also a mystery to the author). But these burdens are probably intentional - Trotti isn't going for action. He does nothing to make himslef look heroic - what can you say about a guy who admits that his biggest fear isn't of missiles or MiG fighters, but of the power seats in his airplane (the author is not a tall man). One interesting aspect - unlike the cool and pristine airplanes in similar books, Trotti's jets are aged (and prematurely so) by the rigors of combat and flight. The most enduring images of the book, are those of a newly shipped F-4, with its fresh paint job, sharing ramp space with older jets with their paint blistered by supersonic air. It's not a book you'll read in one sitting, but it's not a book you'll read only once.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice job, John, March 9, 2005

By 

S. M.Silver "Lobo(AW)" (Coatesville, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phantom over Vietnam: Fighter Pilot, Usmc (Wings of War) (Hardcover)

I have to admit I am biased - I flew with John Trotti on at least one flight as his RIO (backseater). And, naturally, I hoped to find someone had done a good job of describing life in a Marine Phantom, something I lived for 316 combat missions over North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. As the stars indicate, I think John did an excellent job.

True, it is not the book I would have written - aerial combat is intensely personal, always has been, and so every account, if it is honest and well written, will be different. Trotti has a little difficulty understanding why anyone would be a backseater (lack of 20/20 vision is a place to start, but being able to be in fighters is the big reason; again, my perspective rearing its head), but he has his fingers on the pulse of combat flying in Southeast Asia. The fatigue of both planes and men is seldom mentioned in most accounts of the air war and the cost was higher than most realize. The intensity of flying close air support in conditions where even seagulls preferred to walk is well described in this book.

Above all, it is a personal account, provided by a man who was a good observer of both himself and the world around him. For readers looking to make the dry accounts of the air war's political decisions and combat statistics real, then Trotti's book is the place to begin.