The Pinnacle: a Memoir

Hal Bingaman, a boy from Iowa, went to the sound of airplanes. In 1947, age 17, he flew a small fabric plane for the first time. Five years later he climbed into a fighter as a pilot in the Us Air Force. Bingaman begins with a foreign assignment flying in an American Nato squadron. It was the "furious fifties" of The Cold War, and he reflects on fascinating moments as a pilot, sustained by a devoted family and committed by oath to defend free world values. In due course he and his fighter clan penetrated North Vietnam's massive arsenal from the Ussr and Red China. The Pinnacle is a touching recall of actions and lethal names: Yen Bai, Viet Tri, Thud Ridge, Red River and Hanoi. Hal returns to personalities and perilous missions--one of them life changing. In this half-century recalled, preeminent is a family shaped by dynamic life.