Document Created: 26 February 2007
Air & Space Power Journal- Winter 2007

Flying through Midnight: A Pilot’s Dramatic Story of His Secret Missions over Laos during the Vietnam War by John T. Halliday. Scribner, imprint of Simon and Schuster (http://www.simonsays.com), 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020, 2005, 432 pages, $27.50 (hardcover).

Flying through Midnight is the personal account of a C-123 pilot flying Operation Candlestick missions in 1970 and 1971 to illuminate enemy targets by dropping flares over the Steel Tiger area of southern Laos and the Barrel Roll area of northern Laos. The author tells several entertaining stories before he arrives at the central focus of his book—a night landing at Long Tieng, Laos, and the subsequent takeoff the next day.

A reader not familiar with air operations during the war in Southeast Asia might find Halliday’s book quite amusing. However, I am intimately familiar with those operations, having spent 27 months there as a forward air controller (FAC), a Raven (a particular breed of very independent, volunteer FACs who flew unconventional but highly successful missions in Laos), and an RF-4 pilot. I found so many errors in fact in the first 100 pages that I began to doubt that Halliday was ever in Southeast Asia. The fact that he was indeed there makes things even worse. I found his accounts irritating. The events may have happened more than 35 years ago, but even at a distance of three decades, one does not confuse Barrel Roll’s night airborne battlefield command and control center ­(Alley Cat) with the one in Steel Tiger (Moonbeam). Nor does one forget the name of Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base—a primary recovery base for Barrel Roll missions that went badly. Dozens of other questionable recollections in this book will make any veteran of that time and place wonder about the author’s veracity.

Flying through Midnight provides some light entertainment. However, for readers knowledgeable about the events Halliday describes in this book, I suggest a ready supply of antacid tablets.

Col Karl Polifka, USAF, Retired
Raven 45, 1969
Williamsburg, Virginia

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

Book Reviews | Home Page |Feedback? Email the Editor