FLYING THE LINE AN AIR FORCE PILOT'S JOURNEY
VOLUME ONE THRU VOLUME THREE
By Lt Col Jay Lacklen USAFR (Retired Author) Vietnam, SAC, 1970-1979
Price: $10
Book Synopsis
Embarking on an insightful journey through the 1970s American military, Jay Lacklen takes you on an enthralling adventure from pilot training to a Vietnam tour in small transport aircraft, and then to a surreal, nightmarish B-52 bomb run at the close of the Vietnam War. He finishes the decade while pulling a nuclear alert in the Strategic Air Command and suffering two near-death episodes in the bomber. The college journalist goes to war and brings the story home.
By Lt Col Jay Lacklen USAFR (Retired Author) Military Airlift Command, 1981-1993
Price: $10
Book Synopsis
Book two takes a revealing look at the Military Airlift Command (MAC) in the 1980s and early 1990s. The author’s journey takes the reader to a myriad of worldwide destinations flying the C-5 Galaxy, the largest Air Force transport. Episodes include the air-refueling in a Pacific typhoon, which is the subject of a Smithsonian Channel TV segment. Another includes a Moscow mission on the final day of the Soviet Union, which recounts the surreal scene of Soviet soldiers manually downloading the C-5, supervised by the C-5 loadmasters. During this interaction, Lacklen eye-locks with a Soviet military officer, and neither can seem to break the lock. Lacklen’s later unauthorized trip to a Moscow 2nd grade classroom provides a poignant glimpse of the common humanity of two enemies.
By Lt Col Jay Lacklen USAFR (Retired Author) Air Mobility Command, 1993-2004
Price: $10
Book Synopsis
Book three has the Military Airlift Command converting to the Air Mobility Command (AMC) in 1993. The worldwide mission continues and includes involvement in three little wars: Black Hawk Down in Somalia, the Rwanda genocide, and the Balkan War, and one big war in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lacklen appears twice on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” in opposition to the Air Force. He ends his career facing a court-martial for refusing the anthrax inoculation. Lacklen bravely stood alone against the military medical community and the Air Force chain of command. This final book of Lacklen’s memoir recalls what a retired Air Force pilot told him as he left for Officer Training School. He said, “You are embarking on a great adventure!” It certainly would be that.