| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Flying Through Midnight: A Pilot's Dramatic Story of His Secret Missions Over Laos During the Vietnam War |
| User Reviews |  | Great storyteller of awesome adventures in the 'Nam
rating: 5
Halliday puts you right in the cockpit and inside his head as he flies over Laos. His descriptions of flight and of the Air Force culture during the war gives an amazing insight into the perspective of a young American trying to stay alive a long way from home.
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It has good points
rating: 2
I didn't hate this book, but at times I found the inaccuracies, stereotypical characterizations, and general level of whining enough to make me put it down. Now as someone with no military experience, I probably shouldn't dwell on the whining. I've not had to spend a year in a sweltering jungle away from my loved ones, and I'm sure it's no fun. Also, as I listened to this book in 'audiobook' format, I think the actor doing the reading is somewhat to blame for the annoying tone of complaint he gives the author. The characters are two dimensional. The rule spouting copilot might as well be called Lt. Badpilot for all the subtlety. But its been thirty some years since the events, so I might be able to grant the author a little leeway in how he recollects and retells the past. But, as other reviewers (most handing out 1 star) have noted, there are serious technical inaccuracies present that bring into question almost every part of the story. Most have already been mentioned. I'll add in a few more that bothered me.
The author would have me to believe that after making a Mayday call, he never updates the controllers with his intentions for bailing/ditching/landing. The author tells us that he keeps open the option for ordering a bailout, but never does a thing to give control an updated position. He decided then to make a difficult landing at the emergency alternate field, but again, never informs controllers, so that after landing he has 'disappeared'.
Near the end of the book, returning back to NKP in the early morning, the author claims he launched star shells in celebration, along with some basic aerobatics, drawing everyone out to see his triumphant return. When he lands, there are huge crowds there to greet him, including key people from his squadron. But didn't he explain that the crews of his squadrons generally slept after sunup to prepare for there night missions? Did a high speed approach and a few star shells really draw everyone out?
It's been said, but I can't help repeat it. Mig-17's dropping bombs on C-123's makes about as much sense as C-123's dropping chains on Mil-10 helicopter.
If this book was sold as fiction, I'd give it three stars. -1 star for dishonesty.
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Good Book
rating: 5
Fast delivery and a good book. My husband was a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam , so these books are a good read for him. ' To The Limit " was the best one according to him.
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Good writing but............
rating: 1
This fella is a pretty good writer but the content of the book and especially his claims leave it with one star. The part about throwing a chain out back of the aircraft and bringing down a chopper was the least believable part. If it were to be found under "Fiction" I would gladly give it a couple more stars.
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INEXPLICABLE INCONSISTENCIES
rating: 2
My unease with this book started from the very first page. I had just finished Tom Yarborough's excellent "Da Nang Diary", documenting his experiences as a special forces forward air controller in Vietnam, and was hungry for more on this topic. But "Flying Through Midnight" proved to be a very different book, and I plowed though it trying to ignore the red flags that kept popping up far too frequently.
Small inaccuracies like the rainy season starting rather than finishing in November, or the Thai waitress using the polite ending "krup" which is reserved for men (women say "ka") I put down to forgetfulness and lax editing. But anyone who writes about a vintage MiG 17 trying to destroy an unlit transport aircraft at night with air-to-air bombs has little idea of military aviation.
Numerous other small technical inaccuracies that one would not expect from a career pilot grate throughout the book. An example: the air cushion that forms under a low flying aircraft is called "ground effect" not "water effect". Its influence is felt at half a wingspan not half a wing chord length, and it's a well known effect taught to every trainee pilot, so Halliday's experienced copilot would not have been stunned by experiencing it for the first time so late in his career. Small inaccuracies for sure, but they accumulate throughout the book to increasingly test its veracity.
All the characters appear to be caricatures with such exaggerated traits that they are difficult to accept as real people. In particular, the inflexible rule-spouting copilot, who becomes worried about dumping government property overboard to lighten an aircraft in mortal danger, beggars belief. Nothing you can place a finger on, but the book's characters just don't read true.
The first two-thirds of the book is little more than a rant against an Air Force hierarchy that deliberately stifles even the slightest innovation. I would have thought that like most military organizations, this squadron would have adapted rapidly to wartime conditions, and welcomed suggestions from its combat pilots. The last third is an admittedly very well written account of an emergency landing that is reminiscent of the best writing of Richard Bach, including all of that author's mysticism. But even the good part of the book is marred by implausible characters and airstrip topography only Hollywood would normally have thought up (as pointed out by another reviewer).
So what to make of it all? There seems little doubt that Halliday is a retired airline captain who did fly C-123s over Laos. His detailed narrative of the difficulties he endured in getting his book published mentions real people, some well known, who helped him. So why is the book full of so many niggling, doubt-inducing entries? Perhaps, in his desperation to get published, the author adopted many of the edits suggested by literary rather than aviation people during the numerous re-writes he was forced to make to get the book published. Or perhaps, as other reviewers have suggested, this is a "faction" book, a Vietnam version of Catch-22 loosely based on the author's experiences, not intended to be an accurate autobiography.
Either way, the book disappoints.
For a first-class read about the work of an unorthodox forward air controller during the Vietnam war, I strongly recommend Tom Yarborough's "Dan Nang Diary" instead.
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Flying Through Midnight: A Pilot's Dramatic Story of His Secret Missions Over Laos During the Vietnam War
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