Fightin' Air Force #30

Thomas M. Braden's journey from a young man seeking admission to the Air Force Academy to a seasoned fighter pilot reaches its critical moment when a Soviet bomber crosses into American airspace—and the fate of sleeping cities rests on his split-second decision at 40,000 feet. This story traces Braden's rigorous training through academy drill, advanced flight school, and combat preparation, building toward the high-stakes interception that will test everything he's learned. Discover whether the years of study, discipline, and skill have prepared him for the moment when his judgment alone stands between an enemy threat and the innocent people below.

When Colonel Benjamin L. Carr arrives to take command of the Red Hat Squadron—a hotshot Korean War fighter group mourning their legendary leader, Lieutenant Colonel Spud Kincaid—he immediately clashes with pilots who believe his by-the-book discipline will ground their edge. As Carr enforces strict formation flying and methodical tactics, Captain Leslie W. Billings and the other aces chafe under orders they see as cowardly, until a low-level strafing run reveals there's more to the Colonel's strategy than meets the eye.

Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting of mysterious flying objects in the skies over Idaho sparked a wave of UFO reports that swept across the world, with witnesses claiming glimpses of everything from "flying flapjacks" to "legless crabs." Between 1948 and 1950, the U.S. Air Force investigated hundreds of eyewitness accounts, ultimately explaining most sightings as weather balloons, meteors, or optical illusions—though not every case could be definitively solved. "The Saucer Scare" traces how one pilot's encounter ignited mass hysteria and challenged the public's understanding of what was truly happening in the skies.

A mysterious pilot who bears an uncanny resemblance to a long-lost airman from World War I reappears in 1961, piloting the experimental X-41 aircraft—and Mr. Davison finally gets a chance to uncover the truth about the man who has mysteriously answered his nation's call in every conflict for over four decades. When Major Colwell reveals the impossible secret of his repeated appearances across the decades, Davison watches as the enigmatic flyer undertakes a dangerous mission that only he seems to have foreseen.