Hobson, Chris. Vietnam Air Losses: United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia 1961-1973.

Hobson, Chris. Vietnam Air Losses: United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia 1961-1973. Specialty press, 39966 Grand Ave., North Branch, MN 55056. 2002. 192 pp. Ill. $29.95.

Originally published in the UK by Midland Publishing, this highly detailed compendium should become a major reference. Only the study by the Center for Naval Analysis published in 1976 has presented such important information. This well-produced softcover book gives a daily account of aircraft losses throughout the American engagement in Southeast Asia (SEA), excluding helicopters.

The photos are well reproduced, although there are quite a few more USAF aircraft shown than Navy or Marine Corps types.

With the benefit of 30 years, the author takes advantage of postwar cooperation between U.S. and Vietnamese agencies in recovering the remains of missing servicemen, and can thus finish the individual stories of the crews in the losses described.

Various appendices give orders of battle, individual service organization and squadrons, and carrier deployments. The reader also gains a sense of the effort and sacrifice aircrews made, as well as the intensity of the air war. Sidebars discuss specific aircraft or weapons, or operational campaigns during the war.

As with any work of such large scope, errors and misconceptions are bound to appear. Navy enlisted ratings are seldom given except as "PO" for petty officer, and crewmen rates are never shown. Navy F-4 back-seaters are also listed as "navigators," strictly an early Air Force designation. Occasionally, wrong designations appear in the photo captions, such as the picture on p. 18 that shows a postwar F-4J of VF-96, while the caption discusses the F-4B. Another error involves the entry for 26 October 1967 and then-Lieutenant Commander John S. McCain. He lost the presidential nomination race to Governor, not Senator, George Bush. And McCain was not aboard the carrier Oriskany during the terrible fire of October 1966.

Somewhat surprisingly, Chris Hobson also continues the now-defunct legend of the Cunningham-Driscoll confrontation with top North Vietnamese ace "Colonel Tomb." This story of the nonexistent ace has been pretty well debunked by the North Vietnamese themselves.

The negative points aside, this new book is well worth the price and deserves a place on the shelf of anyone interested in America's longest war.

By Cdr. Peter B. Mersky, USNR (Ret.)