{"product_id":"2940158913808","title":"Hognose Silent Warrior: The USAF's Airborne Intelligence War in the Final Air Campaigns of Vietnam","description":"The Silent Warriors of the U.S. Air Force Security Service, the \"back-enders\" on SAC's Hognose RC-135 reconnaissance planes, had quietly been in all the USAF air campaigns of the Vietnam War. Little is known about the critical role that a few thousand of these unheralded flyboys played in America's air war against communist aggression in Southeast Asia during that era. They were merely one of the many integral pieces of the great puzzle that history knows as Vietnam. They performed their top secret role in a most spectacular fashion by intercepting enemy communications about troop and materiel movements on the ground, surface-to-air launches and anti-aircraft targeting, and MiG fighter pilot communications. The author was one among many of those American kids of the 60's who were selected to join the privileged ranks of the air force's elite. This is yet another untold story about Vietnam, one you may not have heard about before. It is America's involvement as seen through a much different lens, a story about those who fought this war using intellect as their only weapon.\u003cbr\u003e From the early 1960's until the war was officially declared over after the fall of Saigon in 1975, there was a period of great advancement in America's intelligence gathering efforts. It was an unprecedented endeavor to monitor, collect and process real-time data and information utilized for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. America's skills were honed beyond expectations during this era, in particular the airborne intercept mission programs that expanded beyond utilizing older prop planes to newer jet models, like the RB-47, later the U-2 and SR-71 super spy planes, and in particular the Boeing 717 model configured as the RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft that could be manned with up to thirty-five crew members. Mostly enlisted personnel, these Silent Warriors, as they came to be called, were the crème-de-le-crème of the USAF. They were schooled in linguistics, electronic and signal intercept, cryptology, and many other disciplines unique to the world of intelligence. Thousands of them served in USAFSS units throughout SEA both on the ground and in the air. The author was schooled in the North Vietnamese language at one of the top government language institutes, and was ultimately assigned as a tactical-air intercept operator on board RC-135 aircraft performing the top secret Combat Apple missions. His expertise was intercepting and reporting in real time the communications of MiG fighter pilots in combat.\u003cbr\u003e This book is the third and final in a series of three books chronicled as \"Generations at War.\" The author's family has a proud history of military service to our country and to preserving our freedoms and the American way of life. There have been four successive generations in the Schreader family bearing the name George who have had a military connection, this author being the last of the four. He has compiled from the family archives the circumstances and stories of all four men, combining that family history in a series of three books. Three of the Georges have participated in historical battles of the modern era in the Twentieth Century, and one was given great privilege to honor those of the Civil War era.\u003cbr\u003e This third book in the series is available hard copy through Amazon and Barnes \u0026amp; Noble, and e-book versions are available on Amazon Kindle and Barnes \u0026amp; Noble Nook. Other books in the series are also available from the same retail sources.","brand":"Outskirts Press, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47104241926384,"sku":"2940158913808","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940158913808_p0.jpg?v=1764124341","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940158913808","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}