Ed Cobleigh > Quotes

“The P-39 "Aircobra" had its big, heavy, Allison piston engine mounted behind its single-seat cockpit. The spinning propeller shaft ran between the pilot's legs up to the nose. It was one of the least successful fighter aircraft of WWII.”
― Ed Cobleigh, War For the Hell of It: A Fighter Pilot's View of Vietnam

“Jares" or The Plain of Jars. We still refer to it by the French acronym as the "PDJ." Only two roads, an east-west dirt road and another north-south unpaved track traverse the PDJ. The roads meet and cross near the geographic center. There are no substantial villages or towns on the PDJ, just a few scattered hamlets along with the encampments of competing armies and a bumpy dirt airstrip or two. The hills surrounding the plain are controlled for the most part by Hmong tribesmen. The Hmong are ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and temperamentally distinct from the lowland Laotians. The Hmong are fiercely independent, fiercely proud, and just plain fierce. They are on our side in the war, which is a good thing for us if not for them. The Hmong have little use for their Laotian countrymen and have even less tolerance for Vietnamese people, from either the North or the South.”
― Ed Cobleigh, War For the Hell of It: A Fighter Pilot's View of Vietnam

“Paveway system was invented in some guy's garage (where else?).”
― Ed Cobleigh, War For the Hell of It: A Fighter Pilot's View of Vietnam

“There are few things in life worth worrying about and almost none of them occur on the ground”
― Ed Cobleigh, War For the Hell of It: A Fighter Pilot's View of Vietnam

“and I have seen them all, stars such as John Wayne (Jet Pilot with Janet Leigh), or George C. Scott (Not With My Wife, You Don't with Virna Lisi), or William Holden (The Bridges at Toko-Ri with Grace Kelly) all fly with their visors up and their oxygen masks dangling loose. I assume this is to let the cameras record them acting. No real pilot flies like that. Without a visor, the high altitude glare would blind me and”
― Ed Cobleigh, War For the Hell of It: A Fighter Pilot's View of Vietnam

“The Pilot: Fighter Planes and Paris.”
― Ed Cobleigh, And I Lived to Tell the Tales: The Life of a Fighter Pilot