Summary of Christopher Robbins's The Ravens

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The secret war was a game designed by an enterprising officer to teach new pilots about the Vietnam War. It was modeled after Monopoly, with the first moves covering such dull stuff as aircraft maintenance, radio procedures, and the Rules of Engagement. The briefing officer took the players through the gradual process of developing into an old head instead of acquiring houses or hotels.

#2 The comic-strip flyboy, Steve Canyon, was created in 1947. He was a Gary Cooper type with a shock of slicked-back blond hair and a pipe clamped in his jutting jaw. He dressed in flying coveralls, always carried a. 45 automatic in a shoulder holster, and traveled the world undertaking any assignment as long as it’s perilous, exciting, and decent.

#3 The young pilots who went to Vietnam to fly as forward air controllers arrived pumped up and ready for action. They had a wide range of training behind them and were convinced of their status as an elite.

#4 The dream of young romantics who were going to be fighter pilots was to duel with a Russian MiG, one on one, up in the wild blue yonder over North Vietnam. But it is the fate of romantics to be disillusioned, and most would-be pilots were eventually forced to accept that being given a fighter was little more than a dream.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669398332

IRB Media

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Insights on Christopher Robbins's The Ravens

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The secret war was a game designed by an enterprising officer to teach new pilots about the Vietnam War. It was modeled after Monopoly, with the first moves covering such dull stuff as aircraft maintenance, radio procedures, and the Rules of Engagement. The briefing officer took the players through the gradual process of developing into an old head instead of acquiring houses or hotels.

#2

The comic-strip flyboy, Steve Canyon, was created in 1947. He was a Gary Cooper type with a shock of slicked-back blond hair and a pipe clamped in his jutting jaw. He dressed in flying coveralls, always carried a. 45 automatic in a shoulder holster, and traveled the world undertaking any assignment as long as it’s perilous, exciting, and decent.

#3

The young pilots who went to Vietnam to fly as forward air controllers arrived pumped up and ready for action. They had a wide range of training behind them and were convinced of their status as an elite.

#4

The dream of young romantics who were going to be fighter pilots was to duel with a Russian MiG, one on one, up in the wild blue yonder over North Vietnam. But it is the fate of romantics to be disillusioned, and most would-be pilots were eventually forced to accept that being given a fighter was little more than a dream.

#5

The FAC was essential to the Vietnam War. He was in charge of finding the target, ordering up fighter-bombers from a circling airborne command and control center or ground-based direct air support center, marking the target accurately with white phosphorus smoke rockets, and controlling the operation throughout the time the planes were on station.

#6

The Army had insisted that any FAC working fighters near troops be fighter-qualified, believing that such a pilot would be safer and more competent. The Air Force took the young FACs and gave them 80 hours of flying time in a fighter, training them in fighter-weapons delivery.

#7

In Vietnam, the final step before being allowed to join the war was to check out in person at FAC-U in Phan Rang, headquarters of the 14th Air Commando Wing. The FAC would be given a set of military grid coordinates, and then fly to the area and mark the target with smoke.

#8

The moral question became very simple - either you did it, or you didn’t do it. It was not a job that permitted fence-sitting, and no one who had struggled so hard to get to the point of combat respectability was going to quit.

#9

The first six months of a FAC’s tour were spent coping with the realities of the battlefield. Death was a taboo subject, and the arithmetical risk was reduced by flying only fifteen days a month.

#10

The Rules of Engagement were the most complicated and confusing set of rules that a FAC had to deal with. They were