The Hunter Killers, Dan Hampton
The Hunter Killers, Dan Hampton
3 Rating(s)
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The Hunter Killers
The Extraordinary Story of the First Wild Weasels, the Band of Maverick Aviators Who Flew the Most Dangerous Missions of the Vietnam War

Author: Dan Hampton

Narrator: John Pruden

Unabridged: 11 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/02/2015


Synopsis

“A GRIPPING CLASSIC. Exhaustively researched, The Hunter Killers puts you directly into a Wild Weasel fighter cockpit during the Vietnam War. Dan Hampton lets you feel it for yourself as no one else could.”--Colonel LEO THORSNESS, Wild Weasel pilot and Medal of Honor recipientAt the height of the Cold War, America's most elite aviators bravely volunteered for a covert program aimed at eliminating an impossible new threat. Half never returned. All became legends. From New York Times bestselling author Dan Hampton comes one of the most extraordinary untold stories of aviation history.Vietnam, 1965: On July 24 a USAF F-4 Phantom jet was suddenly blown from the sky by a mysterious and lethal weapon—a Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM), launched by Russian ""advisors"" to North Vietnam. Three days later, six F-105 Thunderchiefs were brought down trying to avenge the Phantom. More tragic losses followed, establishing the enemy's SAMs as the deadliest anti-aircraft threat in history and dramatically turning the tables of Cold War air superiority in favor of Soviet technology.Stunned and desperately searching for answers, the Pentagon ordered a top secret program called Wild Weasel I to counter the SAM problem—fast. So it came to be that a small group of maverick fighter pilots and Electronic Warfare Officers volunteered to fly behind enemy lines and into the teeth of the threat. To most it seemed a suicide mission—but they beat the door down to join. Those who survived the 50 percent casualty rate would revolutionize warfare forever.""You gotta be sh*#@ing me!"" This immortal phrase was uttered by Captain Jack Donovan when the Wild Weasel concept was first explained to him. ""You want me to fly in the back of a little tiny fighter aircraft with a crazy fighter pilot who thinks he's invincible, home in on a SAM site in North Vietnam, and shoot it before it shoots me?""Based on unprecedented firsthand interviews with Wild Weasel veterans and previously unseen personal papers and declassified documents from both sides of the conflict, as well as Dan Hampton's own experience as a highly decorated F-16 Wild Weasel pilot, The Hunter Killers is a gripping, cockpit-level chronicle of the first-generation Weasels, the remarkable band of aviators who faced head-on the advanced Soviet missile technology that was decimating fellow American pilots over the skies of Vietnam.

About Dan Hampton

Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Dan Hampton flew 151 combat missions during his twenty years (1986–2006) in the United States Air Force. For his service in the Iraq War, Kosovo conflict, and first Gulf War, Col. Hampton received four Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor, a Purple Heart, eight Air Medals with Valor, five Meritorious Service medals, and numerous other citations. He is a graduate of the USAF Fighter Weapons School, USN Top Gun School (TOGS), and USAF Special Operations School. A frequent guest analyst on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC discussing foreign affairs, military, aviation, and intelligence issues, he has published in Aviation History, the Journal of Electronic Defense, Air Force Magazine, Vietnam magazine, and Airpower magazine, and written several classified tactical works for the USAF Weapons Review. He is the author of the national bestsellers Viper Pilot and Lords of the Sky, as well as a novel, The Mercenary.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Paul on March 26, 2017

I borrowed this book from a friend and read it over the course of a few weeks. I'm a volunteer docent at a large air museum, where I talk about fighters and other aircraft to visitors from around the world. I'm slowly building up my base of knowledge on WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam, since those......more

Goodreads review by Ken on February 19, 2022

The Hunter Killers by Dan Hampton, a good mixture of technical data, history lesson & snippets of heart pounding air combat. The Vietnam air war and its struggle with then the new surface to air radar guided anti aircraft Russian missile technology that gave America a bloody nose. Nothing like press......more

Goodreads review by ☘Misericordia☘ on November 16, 2021

A spunky read about a rather unfortunate, if not outright shameful page of world history. The aviator part is really entertaining. The ethical - goash, no! Why would any grown up people ever consider participating in a war? Any war? Of any kind? Especially a purposless and even lawless one? Weird mo......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on November 18, 2015

I found myself conflicted on what sort of rating to give this book. On the plus side the author does know his subject, or at least from what little I know of military aircraft he does. On the negative side the book is very poorly written from a narrative point of view. Its as if he spent all of his......more

Goodreads review by Jesper on August 09, 2017

Although well written the book is too much Vietnam War history and too little Wild Weasel history/tech......more