Flying Blind
Description
Flying Blind chronicles the adventures of gifted aviator Jean-Louis Thibodeaux in Indo-China during and after the Vietnam War.
Following the novel The Train by Tony Jordan, Flying Blind finds the young protagonist, who is assigned the mission of rescuing downed aircrew members, struggling to survive a 365-day tour of duty in a combat squadron during the Vietnam War.
Thibodeaux has joined the US Air Force intent on becoming a jet pilot...but sabotage and injury lead to a different fate.
A skilled nighttime helicopter pilot, Thibodeaux flies a specially equipped aircraft that allows for operations in low-level environments under the cover of darkness-taking spies deep into North Vietnam and then returning to bring them back. He and his crew must disguise these missions as night training flights and keep them secret from everyone, including other members of the squadron.
The story speaks to the uncertainty of combat, the rivalries among the squadron, and the heroism of flying life-threatening rescue missions, as well as to the horrors and the pain of losing friends.
This riveting novel also speaks to another kind of heroism-heroism that goes unacknowledged by the CIA.
More details
Person
Tony Jordan is a highly decorated former senior intelligence officer of the CIA National Clandestine Service and award-winning author of the novel The Train.
Prior to joining the CIA, he was a rescue helicopter pilot as well as an instructor, test pilot, and squadron commander in the US Air Force. From the jungles of Southeast Asia to the headquarters of the CIA, MI5, and MI6-with hot deserts, smoke-filled rooms, and dangerous back alleys in between-Jordan was involved in special military operations and covert intelligence work for more than forty years.
He writes in the tower office of his cottage on Spy Hill Farm, in the foothills of the Crab Orchard Mountains of Tennessee, where he is ably supported and appropriately encouraged, when needed, by his wife, Anne, and his BFF, Tailwagger Jack.