Office of Air Force History

The Tale of Two Bridges and the Battle for the Skies over North Vietnam Office of Air Force History

Publisher Marketing: Many documents, articles, and stories have been written about U. S. Air Force operations in Southeast Asia (SEA). However, given the critical in-depth coverage commensurate with our level of involvement. This volume, the first in a USAF Southeast Asia Monograph series, is an attempt to document the story of AIR-POWER -- and the people behind it -- in our nation's longest armed conflict. For eight years American airman fought with a multitude of missions, evolving weaponry, ever changing tactics and maybe most notable --constantly changing constraints. In this volume, authors from the Air War College and Air Command and Staff College who actually fought there have combined for two excellent monographs of the people and weapons in SEA. The authors' breadth of combat experience provides a penetrating account of airpower brought to bear --with all the emotion, frustrations, bravery and confusion of real life. For the general reader, these stories tell of airpower in human terms and should give some understanding of the spirit, courage, and professionalism of our U. S. airmen. To the student of airpower interested in improving the effectiveness of our Air Force, the monographs make an excellent case study of tactical air doctrine. The entire series is dedicated to ALL who served.