Sub titled "Pilots of the Secret War in Laos".
This book, from 2000, is about the group of fac pilots who were in Laos, finding enemies and directing support for the intense fighting that we didn't hear about at the time. The pilots came out of the fac pilots in Viet Nam and were, through bureaucratic shuffling, civilians who were fighting with the CIA, sort of. The author makes it clear that in fact, their command structure was such that the unit was pretty much independent. But it was dependent on CIA and others for supply and resources. It is a fascinating account of a number of the really harrowing missions. It was not unusual to have 14 hours in the air in one day and the survival rate after their six months was about 50%.
A really amazing group of patriots supporting the Hmong (or 'meo', which is a somewhat derogatory term) in their war against the Vietnamese.
If you like history of the Viet Nam era this book is well worth a read.
