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Hi, Folks

I hope you\'ll pardon the blatant sales pitch, but I\'d like to let you know of my latest book about and for the C-130 community. \"The Speed of Heat: An Airlift Wing at War in Iraq and Afghanistan\" comes out late next month or in June, published by McFarland and Company. It\'s an oral history of my unit\'s (167th AW) activities since 9/11, and in its pages some of you will find guys and gals you know.

Essentially, I sat down with about 70 of my squadron mates, and we talked about their experiences. The result is a book that includes aircrews describing desert missions, maintainers talking about combat repairs, and aeromeds discussing saving lives. The book also includes aerial port guys, an intel troop, even two motor pool truck drivers who survived a roadside bomb.

\"The Speed of Heat\" is already available for pre-order on Amazon.com and other online booksellers. You can also find it on the publishers website, www.mcfarlandpub.com, and any brick-and-mortar bookstore can order it for you. It\'ll come in the mail as soon as the copies are printed in a few weeks. You shouldn\'t need the ISBN number to order, but in case anyone asks, it\'s 978-0-7864-3798-6.

Though the 167th is in conversion to the C-5, all of the book except the epilogue concerns C-130 missions. (I wrote it while we still flew the Herk.)

Meanwhile at good old Martinsburg, our conversion to the C-5 continues apace. My fellow flight engineers and I are slowly but surely getting used to flying sideways. (Herk navs, I know you can relate.)

Anyway, thanks for your support. Best wishes and fly safe!

Tom Young

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Guest cobra935o

Just wondering, did you have to send the book to any government agencies for them to sign off on it or anything before you got it published? I am not going to write one, but was just wondering how much pain was involved in the process.

Thanks,

Nathan

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Hi, Nathan

Just to be safe, I ran it past Intel, and they told me there were no Opsec issues in the manuscript. In addition, I let the interviewees review their part of the manuscript prior to submitting it if there seemed even a remote chance that they were talking about something sensitive.

I also let Public Affairs know what I was up to. I think PA used to need to review all such writing, but they don\'t necessarily do that anymore. The Air Force seems to take seriously the free speech rights of its members, and it does not exercise any prior restraint in what we say or write. Of course, if you do reveal anything classified, I\'m sure you\'ll have to answer for it after the fact.

A couple years ago I published an account of a 167th mission in a Random House anthology titled \"Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families.\" This book resulted from a joint project between DOD and the National Endowment for the Arts, and I was one of about 90 contributors from all branches of the service. The book includes some pretty hard-hitting pieces about combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and none of the services censored any of it. In fact, some pretty high-level brass turned out for the book\'s kickoff event at the Library of Congress.

Anyway, that\'s perhaps more detail than you wanted, but that\'s the process I used. Best of luck to you if you do decide to write something.

Tom Young

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Guest cobra935o

Oh no, no writing for me, just wondering how much of a process was involved for you, but it seems like it was fairly easy to get it through. I am sure the hardest part was sitting down and doing the writing itself.

Thanks for the reply,

Nathan

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  • 4 months later...

Hello Tom, I hope this is not off topic (it probably is), but you seem to know your way around. Years ago there was a movie (documentary?), titled \"The Way It Was\" it was about C-130 airlift operations in Vietnam and was narrated by John Wayne. I almost desperately need to find a copy of that film. I\'ve tried all the usual venues, Amazon, etc., to no avail. Do you have any ideas? Thanks for your consideration...Chris:unsure:

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Cris; I think the documentary you want is titled \"Airlift; The way it was\". If you are near any A.F. Museum, try them. I know that the Museum at Mather had it before they closed. If they can\'t get you a copy, maybe they can direct you to where you can get one. And I\'m sure some one here on \"Herky Birds\" has information & will help you as soon as they see your post. They usually do.

Glenn

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Hi, Chris

Sorry it took me so long to respond. In addition to the AF Audiovisual Library, it might also be worth checking with the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I understand they have some kind of research archives, which might include film. The AF Museum might also be a resource.

Best,

Tom

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Hi, Chris

Sorry it took me so long to respond. I\'ve been out of town. You might try the Air Force Museum. It\'s also possible the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum might be a resource. I understand they have some kind of research archives, and that might include film.

Best of luck,

Tom

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Tom , when are you going to do another book, your description of events and inter colation with the members of this great unit made for an outstanding piece of work. I just wish there were more of it.

Maybe you could do a book on your C-5 conversion. That would be exciting to all of us.

Thanks for \"The Speed of Heat \"

RZ HIll

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Hey, RZ

MANY thanks to you for your kinds words. As it happens, I\'m working on a novel right now. It centers around a Herk crew in Afghanistan. I\'m about two-thirds through a rough draft, so it\'s probably at least a couple years from completion. (The working title is \"The Mullah\'s Blizzard.\")

In the meantime, at Martinsburg, we\'re still plugging along with our C-5 conversion. (As I write this, I just got out of the sim.)

Again, thanks for all the support from the gang at this website.

Best wishes and fly safe...

Tom Young

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edit - the link I had was to a russian site. One of those questionable squirrely types. It had a few films like \"operation Buster Jangle\", and the \"how to land a herc on the deck of an aircraft carrier. But no \"Airlift.\" I\'ll keep looking though.

EDIT - I sent off an email to the AF film archive.

Reply is

If the film still exists is would be archived at one of these three

organizations.

National Archives and Record Administration, Motion Picture, Sound and

Video Branch, Archives II in College Park, Maryland. They have email

[email protected]

Defense Visual Information Center. March AFB, California

Customer Service 951-413-2515

Library of Congress. Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Division

202-707-5222 (motion media)

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