The Ravens The Men Who Flew in America's Secret War in Laos

C2b: Crown. Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 1987. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Hardcover. 8vo. Published by Crown Publishers, Inc, New York. 1987. 420 pgs. Illustrated with Black and White Plates. First Edition/First Printing. Signed and inscribed by the numerous Ravens to Air America USAF liasion officer Col Martin Kaufman on the FFEP. First Edition/First Printing. DJ has light shelf-wear present. Bound in half cloth boards with titles present to the spine. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. Officially the war in Laos did not exist - both North Vietnam and the USA denied they had troops there. In fact, thousands of North Vietnamese were invading the country and pouring down the Ho Chi Minh Trail on their way to the south, and the Americans were fighting a vigorous war against them from the air. The Ravens were the pilots, all volunteers, who flew through heavy groundfire to identify targets and call in air-strikes. Their mission was so secret that they were 'sold' their prop-driven planes for a dollar apiece so they could be struck from US Air Force records. They wore no uniform and carried no identification. Refugees from the bureaucracy of the war in Vietnam, they accepted the murderous casualty rates of what was known as the Steve Canyon Program in return for a life of unrestricted flying and fighting. EB; 1.6 x 9.1 x 6.3 Inches; 420 pages .