Storm Flight

by Mark Berent

Overview

In Storm Flight, the intense conclusion to Berent’s Wings of War saga, the action is touched off by a daring raid on the Son Tay prisoner-of-war camp that reveals some startling information. With American prisoners in terrible jeopardy and crucial national secrets in danger of being discovered, the characters we have met in Berent's earlier books are put to the ultimate test. They must call upon all their skill, leadership, guts, and strength to complete their missions.

As always, Berent highlights his knowledge of little known facts about the war, and his keen insight into the minds of members of the fighting forces. In one exhilarating sequence, Parker and his instructor pilot Ken Tanaka each shoot down two MiGs in the course of one fight, involving four MiGs and an unarmed transport. Despite the chewing out that they receive later from their superior officer, the two fighter pilots refuse to shoot down the transport. Ironically, that decision was the one that saved the life of one of their strongest critics, Jane Fonda, who had once called fighter pilots "professional killers." (This incident is based on a true story.) Parker later makes "Ace," a title given to the rare fighter pilot who shoots down five MiGs.

Dedicated pilot, Lt. Col. Court Bannister, his uncle, the seasoned Major General "Whitey" Whisenand, and tough-as-nails Lt. Col. Wolf Lochert, all play key roles in the sensitive operation Storm Flight. With the information from the Son Tay raid, and coded signals from the brave Major "Flak" Apple, who is a tortured inmate at Hoa Lo Prison (the "Hanoi Hilton"), the men learn that the Russians are separating prisoners with highly classified tactical and technical knowledge for special interrogation. Their task in Storm Flight is to learn just where these particular prisoners are being held and what is planned for them.

The characters fight their own private battles as well: Court strives to overcome his loss of Susan Doyle while trying to get back into combat after his banishment from fighters into heavy bombers for vengefully tearing down a Viet Cong flag at a Washington protest rally; Captain Toby Parker, while proving he can stay sober, has to look deep inside himself to see if he truly is a dedicated Air Force Officer and fighter pilot; and Special Forces Colonel Wolf Lochert has to suppress his fierce desire for immediate action and play abhorrent political waiting games in order to ram through his bold plan for a POW rescue.

Storm Flight is a true tour de force in the military field. Berent expertly outlines the incredible obstacles that American flyers faced trying to win an unpopular war while simultaneously forbidden to strike targets vital to success, as, back home, politicians from both sides traded clichés that influenced the lives of millions. Storm Flight is indeed much more than a combat narration.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940000789797
Publisher:	Mark Berent
Publication date:	11/26/2009
Series:	WINGS OF WAR , #5
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	61,676
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

MARK BERENT Lt Col Mark E. Berent, USAF (Ret), was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He attended Cretin High School in St. Paul, Minnesota and St. Thomas College. Later he graduated from Arizona State University under the Air Force Institute of Technology program with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. Lt Col Berent began his Air Force career as an enlisted man, then progressed through the aviation cadet program. He attended pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi and then Laredo Air Force Base, Texas flying the T-6, T-28 and T-33 aircraft and then moved on to F-86s at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. He served on active duty for 23 years until retirement in 1974. He began his operational flying career in the F-86 and F-100 flying at various posts throughout the United States and Europe. He later served three combat tours, completing 452 combat sorties, first in the F-100 at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, the F-4 at Ubon Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, and then in Cambodia for two years to fly things with propellers on them and, through a fluke in communications timing, to personally run the air war for a few weeks. He has also served two tours at the United States Space and Missile System Organization (SAMSO) at Los Angeles, California working first in the Satellites Control Facility and later as a staff developmental engineer for the space shuttle. In his expansive career he has seen service as an Air Attaché to the United States Embassy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and also as Chief of Test Control Branch at the Air Development and Test Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He also served as an instructor at the Air Force's Squadron Officer School. During his flying career he has logged over 4300 hours of flying time, 1084 of those in combat missions in the F-100, F-4, C-47 and U-10 over North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. He has flown 30 different aircraft. His decorations include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leaf cluster, Bronze Star, Air Medal with twenty four oak leaf clusters, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, Cambodian Divisional Medal, and numerous Vietnam Campaign ribbons. He completed jump school with the Special Forces at Bad Tolz, Germany. Later, he jumped with and was awarded Cambodian paratrooper wings. He also flew with and received Cambodian pilot wings. After leaving the Air Force he lived in Europe to establish and direct international operations for the sale of spares for combat aircraft. He has flown many foreign aircraft such as the Swedish Viggen and Royal Air Force Jaguar and Hawk. He also established Berent and Woods Inc, a firm that managed many aviation related activities. Over the years he had published numerous articles for such publications as Air Force Magazine and the Washington Times and for 18 years wrote a monthly pilot/reporter column for the Asian Defense Journal. Under the name Berent Sandberg he and Peter Sandberg collaborated on three novels. He now has five Vietnam air war flying novels in print, Rolling Thunder, Steel Tiger, Phantom Leader, Eagle Station, and Storm Flight. Berent states it is never too late for any endeavor: he published the first of his five books at age 58, ran his first Marathon at 59, bought a T-6 warbird and flew in airshows at 64, and rode in his first cattle roundup in Montana at 74. …………… "Powerful!" --- Publishers Weekly "The pride of the Air Force. The challenge of Vietnam." "A taut, exciting tale of good men in a bad war. Berent is the real thing." --- Tom Clancy "Rolling Thunder is terrific - a novel of exceptional authenticity that hits like a thunderclap. A decorated Vietnam pilot, Mark Berent knows planes and men and battle, and he whirls them around in a story of uncommon strength. I can't wait for his next book." --- W.E.B. Griffin, best-selling author of Brotherhood of War and The Corps "Mark Berent writes with great authority and utter realism, immersing the reader in his characters' every sensation and emotion." --- Dale Brown, best-selling author of Flight of the Old Dog and Silver Tower "The fighter pilot's war - you love it and hate it at the same time, and Mark Berent writes it that way." --- Stephen Coonts, best-selling author of Flight of the Intruder "Berent tells it like it was!" --- Chuck Yeager "The best Vietnam air novel I have read. Berent captures the essence of flying men at war, their agony, emotions, courage, and triumph." --- Brigadier General Robin Olds

What People are Saying About This

Tom Clancy

Berent is the real thing!

Chuck Yeager

Berent tells it like it was!

Dale Brown

Berent writes with great authority and utter realism.

Editorial Reviews

In the bitter year of 1972, deep inside Vietnam, American POWs with special knowledge or skills have been secretly removed from camps, their names hidden from official records. After a daring American raid exposes Soviet complicity, American airmen must try to free their comrades. In this fifth and final novel in the series that began with Rolling Thunder , Lt. Gen. ``Whitey'' Whisenand leads a varied group of men in this mission. Among them are Air Force Lt. Col. Court Bannister, who must leave his beloved fighters and learn to drive a ``bus'' (a B-52 bomber); Special Forces Lt. Col. Wolf Lochert, who designs and carries out a heart-stopping parachute drop; and fighter pilot Capt. Toby Parker. Meanwhile, Major Flak Apple and his buddies bravely manage to send coded messages from Hoa Lo Prison (``Hanoi Hilton''). The mission is further complicated by the anti-war movement, Kissinger/Nixon politicking and the men's emotions as they lose friends in the relentless air war. Genre aficionados will relish the wealth of military detail and the technical explanations; all readers will be rewarded by the ultimate mission, when planes, men and tactics are tested to the spine-tingling limits. Berent, whose 20 years in the Air Force included three tours of Vietnam, has developed a loyal following of military aviation buffs (including many Vietnam aviators) all eager for this conclusion to his saga. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Not since Stephen Coonts's Flight of the Intruder has there been a novel as interesting and authentic on the subject of air combat over Vietnam. Like Coonts, Berent is a Vietnam vet; he served two tours as a fighter pilot, logging more than 1000 hours. Storm Flight is the fifth and final novel in a series that includes Rolling Thunder (Putnam, 1989); it depicts characters ranging from inmates in a starkly depicted POW camp to such actual U.S. government officials as Henry Kissinger. The book's chief action involves a raid on a North Vietnamese POW camp, and of course there are abundant scenes in the air, with aircraft ranging from OV-10 observation planes to the mighty B-52 Stratofortress. Recommended for public libraries and any library with a general or military fiction readership.-- Jim Cunningham, Illinois Mathematics & Science Acad., Aurora

Library Journal