"Winter's Road"

[Bluehawk]

WINTER'S ROAD

By: Donald C. Skinner http://airforce.togetherweserved.com/profile/90008

Vantage Press (1991)

281 pp

ISBN: 0-533-08999-9

Historical fiction

 

US Air Force Air Control Team Fox Able 3 found itself attached to a US Marine unit as their sole forward air controllers while they fought, bled, killed and died in the frozen mountains of Korea in December 1950, carrying out orders to hold and then withdraw in a battle that came to be known as Chosin.

 

This is a fictionalized account of three airmen, a jeep and a radio in their duties with and relationships to each other and those Marines, the weather, the aircraft called in and the militarily successful outcome. It is written by one of them.

 

It is a story of suffering, strategy, mighty effort under extreme conditions, the positive effect of close air support and what it takes to make that happen, and of the comradrie which exists among men in all wars everywhere.

 

This is not a sensationalized book. It is remarkable for the sense you get that you are there with men doing the ordinary things that must be done to survive and fight another day.

 

It is also outstanding in that it gives a rare insight into what air controllers contributed in Korea, to the ground battles.

 

For airmen, it makes you quietly proud to call yourself one among them, and it breaks your heart.

[Sgt. Boghots]

Thanks for the recomendation, Bluehawk :thumbsup: - I just stumbled on your posting tonight.

 

I'm back in a Korean War reading mode the last couple of months - it's been a while since the last one, and I'm enjoying reading and re-reading KW material, both fiction and non.

 

I think I'll find a copy of this one.

 

Best regards,

Paul