Customer Reviews

The Son Tay Raid: American POWs in Vietnam Were Not Forgotten (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)

5 star:		(3)
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I met Col John Gargus at a Son Tay Symposium and his book is an incredible description of a multi-level and complicated rescue of dozens of Vietnam POWs! The level of detail described by Col Gargus make the reader feel as if they were participating in the raid themselves! Despite the detail, which can get technical, the book is still easy to read. This is not a story written by someone who researched the raid. This is a story written by someone who was there! The heros described in this book defined what it means to be an Airman before the Airman's Creed was developed! A MUST READ!

This a well written factual account of the attempt by the US to free the POW's held in the prison at Son Tay, North Vietnam. John has put forth a great deal of effort to obtain the story as relayed by those who participated in the Raid.

If you haven't heard of the Air Force's Max Friedauer, you're not much of a Special Operator.

And Max says this is "definitely a book you want to read and have in your library."

Enough said!!

Definitely buy the book if you have any interest in reading about the mission and the special ops graybeards who participated in this Vietnam-era POW rescue attempt led by MC-130 Combat Talon aircraft. Until much of the information was declassified, you had to go inside the battalion/wing/squadron vault to read the after action report and lessons learned reports. But even those documents don't come close to providing the insight author John Gargus gives the reader through the eyes of a participant...planner and lead navigator for the strike force. But the book goes much further than that. Gargus is a meticulous researcher who also conducted dozens of interviews with other participants to capture the totality of this one-of-a-kind mission in special ops annals.

Thanks John, you got it "right."

Just a awesome book. Not to mention my father-in-law is in it! MSG Herman Spencer!