Robin Olds

[Owen Miller]

The "P-51 Question" thread reminded me about the Robin
Olds bio that was 'in the works'. Has anyone heard any
more about this matter? I surely want to read that book.

Lemme know,
Owen

[Holedigger]

Asked before, and yet.....seems no new news out there...anyone know anything new?
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... =3&t=32954

seems it is available for preorder at Amazon (do it through the WIX link though) apparently will launch April 13.
http://www.amazon.com/Fighter-Pilot-Mem ... 314&sr=8-2

[Dudley Henriques]

The "P-51 Question" thread reminded me about the Robin
Olds bio that was 'in the works'. Has anyone heard any
more about this matter? I surely want to read that book.

Lemme know,
Owen

The book is "Fighter Pilot", by good buddy Ed Rasimus in conjuction with Old's daughter and is on sale now.

[Trey Carroll]

Dudley,

Amazon books is still showing this as being available for "PreOrder", has it been released somewhere else allready?

TC

[Dudley Henriques]

Dudley,

Amazon books is still showing this as being available for "PreOrder", has it been released somewhere else allready?

TC

I saw the same thing at Amazon. I'll ask Ed and get back here to you if that will help.

UPDATE; I just emailed the author. As soon as I hear back I'll post here in this thread. You can pass on any data I receive.
DH

[Dudley Henriques]

The author has just emailed me. There is no change in the 13th as listed on the Amazon site.
DH

[Trey Carroll]

Thanks for the legwork Dudley!

tc

[Dudley Henriques]

Thanks for the legwork Dudley!

tc

As an aside; I'd recommend that all even remotely interested in the AF fighter community invest in this one. Ras knew Olds quite well and I'm certain this book is going to be a wonderful account on the life of a one -of- a-kind guy.
Ed isn't known for pulling punches or taking literary license. He calls them as he sees them in a no nonsense style.
The book should be a must have for warbird fans.

[Chief]

I just finished reading "Fighter Pilot". Then I just had to go through my box of old 35mm slides to review the events Robin describes in Chapter 18. Here is a sequence I took on May 20, 1967 when Robin came back to Ubon after getting his third and fourth MIG.

The first photo is of us cheering him back on the taxiway. The second is him turning onto the flightline. The third is him starting to climb down from the cockpit. The fourth is when he stopped to congratulate his GIB, Steve Croker and the fifth photo is him pouring the champagne. Steve is to the left waiting for Robin to give him his glass of champagne. Those were "the good old days".

[flyingsailor]

I just finished reading "Fighter Pilot". Then I just had to go through my box of old 35mm slides to review the events Robin describes in Chapter 18. Here is a sequence I took on May 20, 1967 when Robin came back to Ubon after getting his third and fourth MIG.

The first photo is of us cheering him back on the taxiway. The second is him turning onto the flightline. The third is him starting to climb down from the cockpit. The fourth is when he stopped to congratulate his GIB, Steve Croker and the fifth photo is him pouring the champagne. Steve is to the left waiting for Robin to give him his glass of champagne. Those were "the good old days".

Chief
You never seem to amaze me with your experiences! Thanks for adding those. This book is on my reading list.
Chris

[warbird1]

Wow, thanks for those pictures, Chief, they are truly historic!

Do you have any stories you can tell about Olds? How was he as a commander? Did you have any personal contact with him? How did he treat the enlisted folks?

[Chief]

I had daily contact with Colonel Olds as NCOIC of 8th TFW Wing Safety. Every morning we had a staff/operations meeting called "Stand-UP", which was held in the briefing room across the hall from his office. (Our safety office was on down the hall to the left) Each morning, we would review the previous day's missions, including selected film from the aircraft cameras. "Discussions" would follow and Colonel Olds, when necessary, would give "advice and guidance" which was sometimes very verbose.

Then, depending on the day of the week, I might have to get up and give a safety report. You can imagine how it was to give a safety briefing in the midst of a war. But, to tell the truth, we lost many more aircraft to accidents than in combat. In the book, he mentions almost as a side note the term "Star Talks". Well, after each accidental aircraft lost we would complete the investigation, give the report to Colonel Olds and he would have to go to 7/13 Headquarters and brief the generals, the (stars). He hated that. But, it was part of the job.

He treated the enlisted troops well. He left us NCO's live off base, in town. He treated me well, gave me a good performance review, which helped me be a "Chief" with only 16 years in the USAF.

I took this photo of him and Chappie James drinking champagne on the flightline. It illustrates some of the challenges a safety guy has in war when they were putting their lives on the line on a daily basis.

John

[warbird1]

Awesome, thanks for that first hand report, Chief! I don't know if you followed it, but there was a thread here a few weeks ago about the possibility of Olds having actually shot down 5 instead of 4 Migs in SEA. Supposedly, the Air Force would not be too happy to have an independent "rogue warrior" like Olds as it's poster boy for being the first Ace of the war, and also, if Olds did shoot down 5, he probably would have been shipped home. There are some that say that Olds did shoot down 5 or more, but gave credit to other pilots or didn't claim credit at all because he knew his days of flying in SEA would be numbered if that happened.

Did you hear any rumors at the time, or do you believe that Olds shot down more than 4 Migs while in SEA?

[warbird1]

Also, I forgot to ask, what was your impression of Chappie James? Did the men of the unit treat him well ? Did he garner people's respect or was there still some latent "racism" going on back then?

[Randy Haskin]

Great photos and stories!