Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds

I was lucky enough to pick this book up as an unabridged book-on CD at a good price and WOW did I get something really, really good in the bargain. The book is written in the first person and the reader sounds like what you would imagine Robin Olds sounds like. I'm about 2/3 through the book and I am not going to skim over, for you, what I've already "read", but I will say that Robin Olds led a life and did things that are well worth reading and marveling about. The book is very well written and just flows. I have read quite a few books written by American warriors in the last year and this autobiography is way up at the top of a very good list of books. I would say that that Robin Olds was a great American hero, but I have a feeling that would just annoy him as what he really wanted to be, and was, was a great American fighter pilot and leader of other great American fighter pilots. (Example: when Robin had 4 kills in VietNam and was one short of being our first ace there, he heard that Harold Brown - Defence Secretary - would reassign him and take his group away from him and use him for propoganda when he got his 5th kill. N. VietNam also had a $25,000 bounty on him. Robin did not want to leave his men and he simply stopped shooting down Migs. He would set them up for his wingman and let his wingman take the kill. He gave up another 5-9 kills in this way.)You definitely want to get and read this book! You are in for an inspirational treat. If you already have a list of other books that you want to read, do yourself a favor and fiinish what you are reading now and slot FIGHTER PILOT in right after it. You will thank me for the suggestion.

Anyone interested in aviation history or simply true leadership should read this. Many thoughtful paragraphs while being truly entertained. One really feels like they know Gen. Olds when they are done.

My husband and I listened to this book on a long road trip and we both just loved it! What an interesting life this man had! Such a hero! The book was very well written and we both learned quite a bit about the life of a fighter pilot and also about events in WWII and the Vietnam War that we were not aware of. Highly recommend this book!

The subject matter may not be of interest to a wide audience, but the book, as written, is quite revealing of the personality required of a fighter pilot. Gen. Olds' supreme self-confidence is evident throughout this book. Of interest to anyone considering the military as a career should be Gen. Olds' descriptions of how he manipulated the system to his advantage, and how he and other warriors perceived the incompetent leadership and management of the Viet Nam war by the Defense Department and President Johnson. The book reveals Gen. Olds to be someone born to be a warrior. His counter-parts have existed for thousands of years in the various armies assembled over the ages to fight wars. Perhaps you wouldn't want him to decide whether to go to war; but you would want your army to have as many soldiers like him as you could find. The quality of the writing is surprisingly good and the book is revealing. I recommend it.

Bought this for my best friends son. He’s 9 and is an aspiring Air Force pilot. He loves learning about WW2 and has so many books already. I thought this would be a nice viewpoint. I read it before gifting it to make sure it wasn’t too inappropriate for a 9 year old and his parents are going to be reading it with him at night to omit a few of the swear words. Obviously not an issue as this is supposed to be based on first hand experiences, but for a kid the parents are censoring that part. Good read all together.

Great book about a great man. Very fascinating life story of a man who was a great leader.

The book depicts General Olds life and you quickly surmise that he had a strong leadership personality from the very start of his life. No matter what he did, he strived for excellence and demanded that from those around him. He was the type of leader that you had confidence that he could lead you through the "gates of *ell" and come out the other side smoking a cigar. Excellent book on what leadership used to be.During the Viet Nam conflict I served flying F-4's from the 25 TFS, 8 TFW in Ubon Thailand. Ubon was the home of Robin Olds "Wolfpack" where he flew against North Vietnam. I was there several years after he was the 8 TFW commander but his legacy still lived on. We still flew the aircraft with the red stars painted from the Robin Olds era. There were stories passed down at the O-Club about about his leadership and taking care of the troops (no matter 1 strip or Eagle). He was the epitome of leadership, both on the ground and in the air. I was fortunate enough to personally meet General Olds at the first "Real River Rats Reunion" in Las Vegas in 1973. I flew out to the "Rats" Convention with Colonel Bill Kirk. Col Kirk and General Olds flew together at Ubon and were life long friends. It was a heck of a convention, General Olds was still the "Convention Flight Lead". If I remember correctly, we had several unplanned "check-6" attacks on some of the Navy "Rats" in attendance. Great convention, exchanging war stories and learning from those that had been to "Route Pack 6" in the early years. Both Col. Kirk and I were exhausted when we departed. Rank has it privilege, so I got to fly home. About halfway across the country one of our F-4 generators failed. Just like wartime, Col. Kirk said press on home, no biggie, we can and fix it later.General Olds, in my opinion, is one of the greatest "LEADERS" the Air Force has ever had!

Olds has seen it all, done it all and writes like the best.

Fun from beginning to end. I felt myself identified with him . Last of greatest aviators from world war two

I really loved reading this book! I did not expect it to be this engaging and well written. But what I liked the most were the invaluable and inspiring lessons on leadership this book contains. Food for thought!

Habe schon viel über Col. Olds in verschiedenen Publikationen gelesen (insbes. Vietnam-Veröffentlichungen). Diese von seiner Tochter und einem Pilotenfreund erstellten Memoiren über sein gesamtes Leben und seine Zeit in der USAF sind lebendig und fachorientiert geschrieben. Ein lohnender Kauf.

This book is the story of an incredible life told with humour, humility and a flow that any novelist should envy.Robin Olds is the real deal and this is a book that I’d rate right up there with Reach For The Sky, The Big Show, and First Light with classics of wartime aviation history. I was up until two in the morning reading it several nights and finished it with genuine regret.

I was really surprised when I read this book. In a good way. Even though I was expecting a lot from it. The story is well written, I never got bored and it was actually hard to stop reading each and every time. The anecdotes are well chosen and you can really immerse yourself in Olds's life, understand his personality, see how it was to fight the germans during WW2 in the P-38 and then in the P-51 for instance. There are so much other things I would love to tell you about this book, but I would spoil you.