Secret and Dangerous: Night of the Son Tay POW Raid

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I have met the author. I have read the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Special Operations and POW matters. This book is an excellent complementry reading to "THE RAID", by Benjamin Schemmer. Son Tay was a technical success, but due to troubles with intellegence compartmentization, it was a practical failure. This book is by a brave man who went and did. It is written on behalf of other brave men who went and did. These were smart and dedicated men of corrage. The book contains many rare photos and drawings. It includes a section for that could be called back to SON TAY. My hat is of to the brave men of The Secret and Dangerous Raid.

Rating:
Summary: Son Tay Raid pilot tells the story!
Review: It was great to see another book on the Son Tay Raid to complement the other excellent book, "The Raid" by Ben Schemmer. However, "Secret and Dangerous" is the first and only book written by someone who actually went on the raid. I have been reading military books for over 25 years and have a great interest in the Son Tay Raid. Being a commercial pilot myself, it was a real eye opener to read about this night, low level, marginal weather flight over enemy territory. It was very interesting to read about the author's mission both in 1970 to the Son Tay prison and to read about his return trip to the same POW camp in the 1990's. If you have an interest in reading about the military or just a great aviation true story, "Secret and Dangerous" will be a great addition to your bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: A Story and A Half
Review: William Guenon's firsthand account of the Son Tay Prison Camp raid deep into North Viet Nam is a book you'll want to read in one sitting and then refer to again many times. His good sense of humor lightens the bittersweet scenes both of the rescue attempt itself and of the nostalgic revisit to Hanoi 24 years later. There is a lot of historical detail on these pages. The saga reminded me of several accounts of the liberation of Los Banos prison camp in southern Luzon in February of 1945, and of the similar rescue of thousands of civilians from the large Santo Tomas prison camp in Manila that same month. Wetmore's *Beyond Pearl Harbor* is a great account of the Santo Tomas experience. Guenon's and Wetmore's books, and one by Wiley (*One Hundred Candles*) are masterful historical records of relatively little known incidents that history buffs may want to own.