Flying Warrior: My Life as a Naval Aviator During the Vietnam War

Lt Harper writes a great book. For a 80 year old retired Naval Aviator, it brought back memories. Jules and I were neighbors on the Kitty Hawk. My two-man room was at 03-69-3L, just down the passageway (hallway) from him. I was a Catapult Officer on the Hawk. We had 5 Cat Officers. Most Likely I shot (Catapult Launched) Jules at least 50 times and the Cubi O’Club was my headquarters ashore. My Naval Aviation background included flying the P2V around the Atlantic, Mediterranean, & Caribbean. Much less exciting than flying combat in Vietnam. Jules’ airplane the A4 was the work horse of the Vietnam war. I could not believe a small airplane could actually fly with a huge bomb-load that they strapped on the A4. Seeing a 24,000 lb A4 taxi up to the Catapults with so many bombs they were almost scraping the flight deck. I wish Jules or one of his squadron mates would post a picture here of a fully loaded A4. And the A4 was structurally limited to 400 PSI of Super Heated Steam Pressure for it’s Catapult Launch. The engineers were afraid any more steam pressure would rip the airplane apart. The F4, A5, A3 could take up to 1,,000 Pounds of Steam Pressure for their launch. On some really hot days on Yankee Station we could barely get the airplanes airborne when they were fully loaded. But with great caution we managed to launch 23,000 aircraft during the first 6 month WestPac line period. I only flew the 2-seat A4 with friends and the back seat of the F4, A3 and the E2. Our Carrier Air Group Commander wanted all the Catapult Officers to be familiar with all the airwing aircraft. As Catapult Officers we were required to know the limits of each airplane we shot. We had a couple of mishaps but never lost a airplane or pilot. I was being qualified to launch airplanes from the waist catapults when a A4 pilot was at full power but would not look at the catapult officer, LCDR Flanerty. After a strange hesistation the A4 pilot gave his salute and braced for the cat shot. When Art signaled the shot everything went normal and the A4 began to climb but then suddenly pushed the nose over and according to the videotape of the launch flew from an estimated 150 ft into the water. The pilot and airplane were lost. Subsequent investigation revealed the pilot had received a ‘Dear John’ letter from his wife informing him she was in love with another pilot and had filed for divorce. The accident board speculated the pilot flew into the water purposely, committing Suicide.I was plagued with F4 structural damage by the Jet Blast Deflector striking the tail of a VF-213, F4 while preparing to launch. The JBD operator was instructed to follow the aircraft as they came up on the shuttle to shunt the exhaust from the F4 preventing damage to aircraft and personnel by the exhaust. The JBD operator struck the tail as it was being launched for a Night practice cat shot and arrested landing. Then, the JBD operator was transferred to the Waist Cats from the Bow and he was errantly assigned to operate the Waist JBD. So that when he was raising the JBD for the number 3 catapult he struck the tail again. This would have been a routine mishap. Written up, investigated and forgotten except I was the catapult officer for both incidents and the F4 pilot was the same person, both times. And we had just left Hawaii where he and I had exchanged words over a young lady. It took me flying his back seat for 3 missions for he and I to be friends again. The JBD operator was transferred to the arresting gear division. In fairness to the JBD operator, he was a draftee and wore very thick corrective lens and should never have been trained as a Catapult Crew Member.The bravest pilot I met when I checked aboard the Kitty Hawk the first day. After reporting to the ship’s admin dept and getting a room assigned I went to the formal dining room for dinner. Entering the wardroom, there were a good number of officers eating their meal and most seats were taken. But at one table there sat a commander alone. I asked if I could join him and he invited me to sit. After I was settled the commander explained he was being shunned by the Ship and Airwing officers. I had never heard of that happening to anyone in a squadron and said that we had something interesting to talk about over dinner. I wished I could remember his name. He said that during the ship’s last line period on Yankee Station off Vietnam, he had refused to send his young pilots on their combat missions. He said too many of his young officers were being killed in combat and he did not feel the war was worth their sacrifice. He had been a commanding officer of a A4 squadron, possibly Jules squadron, and once he refused to send anymore pilots on combat missions the Commander CTF77, Admiral Ralph Cousins, relieved him of his command and assigned him to the ship till he received orders to report to the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C. for disciplinary action. He sacrificed his career to save some lives of his young pilots. I believe my memory is correct that he had commanded a A4 squadron. If anyone reading this remembers his name please leave it in a comment or email it to me at davew26 at MSN dot com.Forty-years later, it was revealed WHY we were losing so many pilots flying combat in Vietnam. General Piotrowski, in his Amazon Book, “Basic Airman to General: The Secret War & Other Conflicts: Lessons in Leadership & Life” revealed that our own president Johnson and secretary of defense Robert Mcnamara were betraying our Navy and Air Force pilots by sending the assigned list of targets, 72 hours in advance of the assigned mission to the Swiss embassy in D.C. with instructions to pass the target list to the N. Vietnamese government. Our own government was conspiring to shoot down our Navy and Air Force airplanes. I watched and heard former Secretary of State Dean Rusk admit they were passing the list of assigned targets to our enemy in order to “save N. Vietnamese lives.” They were doing so at the expense and the safety of their own pilots without informing our pilots. Secretary Rusk made his admission on Ken Burns Canadian production, “Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War”. The video clip has been removed from Youtube to protect the politicians. The U.S. release of the Ken Burns production has also been cleansed of this admission. Censored and not protested by YouTube or producer Burns.Our pilots were betrayed by our own administration. I wonder if Admiral Cousins or General Westmoreland knew of this betrayal and kept it secret. It was a conspiracy between our President, Defense Secretary and Secretary of State to kill our pilots. It is time someone from the Johnson era explains. Lt Harper never knew of this betrayal and he loyally and with great skill flew his combat missions and survived despite the betrayal by his own leaders. Navy Carrier Pilots are the finest in the world and should never be betrayed for someone's political ambitions.Thanks Jules and I ordered your video of flight operations.

A great read. Really puts you in the pilot’s seat.An amazing career of a real Hero.

I enjoyed reading this book about Jules Harper and his life in the Navy as an A-4 Skyhawk pilot, I like that he has made his flim that he took in Vietnam available as a companion DVD to accompany his book.

Jules Harper has put together a very good story of his flight training and overseas deployment as part of a Navy attack squadron aboard the USS Kitty Hawk operating on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf during the Vietnam war. This book is a quick read and provides some interesting stories which include his encounter with Capt. Thomas Hudner who earned the Medal of Honor for his heroism in attempting to rescue his wing man, Jesse Brown, in December 1950 during the battle at the Chosin Reservoir.in Korea. We are fortunate to be able to read about and appreciate the service and sacrifices men like Jules Harper made for our country.

I flew Fighter-Bombers in the USAF. I wanted to find out how the Navy operated. Good read with lots of information.

I can only give this book three stars. I have issues with the manner in which the author relates his experiences The book is geared towards an audience with little to no aviation experience. Carrier operations are only briefly mentioned, and I would have appreciated more detail on the A4, in combat, rather than copies of the authors award citations. There is a better book out there about Navy A4 squadrons in Vietnam. I'm continually looking for "EVERYDAY HEROES" on Kindle. That Australian published book makes Flying Warrior seem almost juvenile.

One of my favorite genres , is a young person gets the aviation bug, and becomes a military pilot. The best part of this book is he goes the hard way , and completed training to become a Naval Aviator.You get to experience the joys and terrors of combat. And the sadness when too many friends die and you must become HARD

Mr. Harper's book is very low on the drunken party stories, although not completely without, and very high on single seater, flying action.Mr. Harper portrays himself as a very human person without trying to portray himself in any particular way.Well done!

This was an excellent book, taking you throughout the flight career of the author, including his many close calls and the sadly all too frequent losses of fellow fliers, and their antics during rest periods. I would highly recommend it as a good read to anyone, as it catalogues the very interesting, challenge filled life of a very brave man. All of these fliers deserve a great deal of respect, and this would be a great introduction to anyone interested in flying combat in this theatre as the author gives plenty of detail, and good historical context, but is a short account - the only reason I gave it four stars and not five as the story ended too soon.

Very short, simplistic and poorly told account of a combat pilot in vietnam. Its as if it was written for young adults. A shame as this pilot flew a-4's from carriers over north vietnam and in particular route pack 6, it should have been awesome!

Good account by an A4 pilot

Good read.

A very interesting and educational summary of an exceptional talented and lucky naval aviator. A credit to the US navy.Ron Catchpole