Perspective of the last 12 months of the air war over Vietnam based on the experiences of those who flew into combat from USS Midway’s flight deck – experiences that make up a significant part of the fabric of one of the most controversial conflicts in American military history.
{To order: See above BLOWN SLICK – a Remembered Sky Perspective}
First off, My book Blown Slick has been privately published as of April 2026. Initially intended for a select group of 50 +/_ aviators, family and close friends the order grew to 100 all gone. I now have requests for more and a second printing is underway. This book is 8.5 x 11, soft cover and 248 pages with significant color and superb art work by Peter Chilelli. The cover A-7 is an excellent example. This is not a cheap context to print and as noted with the ISBN bar code the cost is $60. This price covers only the cost to produce. This will not appear on Amazon or any mainline book selling site. Due to the minimum acceptable printing cost order size, no future printing orders are anticipated. If interested in purchasing please e-mail me with shipping address: beakleyje@roadrunner.com.
Some overview and pictures are offered below:
Blown Slick is intended to provide a perspective of the last 12 months of the air war over Vietnam based on the experiences of those who flew into combat from USS Midway’s flight deck.
The operative word here is “perspective.”. These are the experiences that make up a significant part of the fabric of one of the most controversial conflicts in American military history with hope that the reader can better understand that period and the air war overall.
Blown Slick has historical, technical, and operational mission descriptions but approaches the USS Midway’s operations in the Gulf of Tonkin from a different approach. Chapters are individual stories but when taken in whole present a perspective of the life bubble around the flyers. History is there but it is intended to provide a framework for a “jigsaw-like” view of the air war in the ’72-’73 time frame. That final year is similar but with a great many differences from the earlier Operation Rolling Thunder period.
I wanted enough tech/op stuff that the bubbas -would look back and remember when we were “god’s gift in speed jeans,” and smile a bit ya know? But I also wanted family, friends and folks that just like flying stuff to get a taste of the whole aviation-in-wartime environment – our own personal bubbles. That meant pictures and the mission event illustrations by Peter Chilelli are superb. As example the Phu Ly Bridge work used real RF-8 intel photos (unclassified) from the RF-8 aviator as background.
War stuff is there but hopefully so is the laughter, silly s..t, and most of all the deep friendships. Co-author Dave Kelly wrote really well from “an in the cockpit” viewpoint. Indeed, for me, if you step back just a bit, let the Intruder specific stuff kinda slide to the side, his chapters provide the perspective of combat flying whether you were a Phantom, Corsair or Crusader aviator, or also AF or USMC -talent to describe what we all saw and felt.
Part of our day-day was that we had to compartmentalize to focus in the manner necessary to survive combat and day and night traps, but whether admitted out loud or not, there were a lot more pieces to our personal bubbles – a key one being the “tin gods with their STEEL MAGNOLIAS.” Another chapter characterizes our “evening-the-strain” activities at if you will our Margaritaville – the Cubi Point Officers Club.
I hope readers will see a more nuanced representation of us guys in speed jeans (g-suits). We certainly blew a few things slick and we most certainly got blown slick ourselves on occasion.
I never would have made it if I could not have laughed. It lifted me momentarily out of this horrible situation, just enough to make it livable (Viktor Frankl)
These good men…
It’s the Laughter We Will Remember
