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The Journal of Military History 71.1 (2006) 205-206

Reviewed by
Ralph F. Wetterhahn
Long Beach, California
Launch the Intruders: A Naval Attack Squadron in the Vietnam War, 1972. By Carol Reardon. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005. ISBN 0-7006-1389-7. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xviii, 419. $34.95.

Reardon's book is a scholarly chronicling of events surrounding the 1972 Linebacker bombing campaigns in Vietnam through the recollections of members of one Navy A-6 Intruder squadron. VA-75's contribution to helping bring to a close active U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War is described in detail. The complexity of handling distant family issues amid the bustling activity aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga is well integrated. Though the reading is a bit tedious at times, one does get an accurate flavor of life and death involving members of an attack squadron aboard a Navy man-o-war. The number of Sunday Puncher Squadron personnel mentioned is extensive, but this causes most character descriptions to lack "punch," remaining with few exceptions merely stick figures recognizable by name only. A detraction noted throughout was an obvious attempt to magnify the courage and role of the Bombardier/Navigators (B/N) at the expense of the pilots. The author is quick to point out, for example, when pilots are "terrified" flying through heavy flak, but to suggest (even though citing from a diary) that "the experience did not faze his unflappable B/N; LT Wagner had fallen asleep," defies belief. The author does a good job of describing routine events both aboard ship and on the home front, but I was never able to understand just how the A-6 crew worked together during night low-level attacks. Was the autopilot connected to the terrain-following radar, or was the pilot constantly hand flying the plane at altitudes as low as 200-feet AGL? Was a terrain-avoidance or head-up display used? What cockpit indications directed the pilot to the bomb-release point? What references are used when jinxing in the dark on the deck? We never get an explanation. Reardon's writing reaches a peak during the Linebacker II chapters, with riveting accounts of the final twelve-day effort from VA-75 (and others) that [End Page 205] finally brought the North Vietnamese to seriously negotiate a settlement. The author undertook a monumental task, and, with the exceptions noted, accomplished a definitive historical account.

Note

The reviewer flew 77 combat missions in Navy attack aircraft (144 carrier landings) and 103 missions in Air Force fighters, operated both single and multi-engine aircraft, and manned pilot-in-command and backseat positions during his career.

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