What do you think?
Rate this book
Vietnam Air War #1
Termite Hill
In 1966, the tide of the air war above North Vietnam is turning against the United States. F-105 Thunderchiefs, and the elite fighter pilots who fly them, are being slaughtered. To destroy the greatest array of sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons ever assembled, the Pentagon creates the Wild Weasel. The mission of Lt. Colonel Mack MacLendon's 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron is to fly these technological demons straight into the teeth of North Vietnam's deadly air defenses and destroy the SAMs and Soviet MiGs that have killed their friends, and now seek their death.
614 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1992
About the author
Tom "Bear" Wilson
10 books5 followersTom "Bear" Wilson was a career United States Air Force Officer with 3000 hours of flying time, mostly in fighters. During his 500 hours of combat flying, he earned four Silver Star Medals for gallantry and three Distinguished Flying Crosses for heroism. He also served in various roles as instructor, flight examiner, tactician, staff officer, and unit commander. After leaving the military, Wilson enjoyed diverse careers, including: private investigator, gunsmith, newspaper publisher, and manager of advanced programs for a high-tech company in Silicon Valley. Mr. Wilson resides in Texas and has recently completed his ninth novel, Black Serpent.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 23, 2021
An impressive, intelligent novel about the air war in Vietnam. Deserves to be on the shelf with Coonts and Clancy and Griffin. Excellent!
June 24, 2014
Even if we die here, we’ll die as free men…
This is the quote I will take away from this book by author Tom “Bear” Wilson. Captured fighter pilot Glenn Phillips is talking to yet another critically injured fighter pilot from his former home squadron and telling him why even if they die there as prisoners inside the “Hanoi Hilton” in North Vietnam that they will still die as free men. I was really moved by this book.
This is a tale that takes you right into the cockpits of the US Air force F-105 Thunderchiefs flown by the Wild Weasels in 1966 North Vietnam. These fighter pilots fought against perilously dangerous odds and suffered terrible losses, especially in their earliest 1965-1966 years when China and the Soviet Union had come to the assistance of North Vietnam. Meanwhile the US skirted around engaging the “enemy” fully because they wanted to avoid a larger war with China and the Soviet Union.
The Wild Weasels job was to bait the North Vietnamese targets into showing their hand by revealing their location on radar. Then the Wild Weasels would, if they could, go in to take out these targets, especially Surface to Air Missile sites, though they had many other successful targets as well as time and circumstance allowed.
Part of their primary mission was to draw the early fire in air attacks. They faced heavy flak, SAM, and other anti-aircraft artillery attacks so that their teammates in other divisions could go in and deliver the kills on military targets. We learn from this tale that the Wild Weasels did a lot of damage, but at a very high price in terms of the pilots (and planes).
We learn pretty early on, and see it reinforced again and again, that captured fighter pilots who didn’t survive their jets going down were perhaps luckier than the ones who survived. They often survived with serious injuries and then were subjected to terrible treatment by the North Vietnamese civilians and/or military who found them.
I wonder is this all still politically incorrect with the liberals and progressives to look at this subject in the US as an American citizen after all these years? I’m very glad to read this story and get a different perspective than the flower-power, anti-war sentiment I felt as a child in the 1960’s.
I’m not giving up that perspective. It was a powerful thing to experience as a child, but I’m glad to broaden my perspective now and understand what it might have been like trying to fight in the name of freedom, country, honor, and duty. I really hate war and how it devastates so many beautiful lives. When will our species out grow this terrible affliction of violence to “solve” problems?
This is the quote I will take away from this book by author Tom “Bear” Wilson. Captured fighter pilot Glenn Phillips is talking to yet another critically injured fighter pilot from his former home squadron and telling him why even if they die there as prisoners inside the “Hanoi Hilton” in North Vietnam that they will still die as free men. I was really moved by this book.
This is a tale that takes you right into the cockpits of the US Air force F-105 Thunderchiefs flown by the Wild Weasels in 1966 North Vietnam. These fighter pilots fought against perilously dangerous odds and suffered terrible losses, especially in their earliest 1965-1966 years when China and the Soviet Union had come to the assistance of North Vietnam. Meanwhile the US skirted around engaging the “enemy” fully because they wanted to avoid a larger war with China and the Soviet Union.
The Wild Weasels job was to bait the North Vietnamese targets into showing their hand by revealing their location on radar. Then the Wild Weasels would, if they could, go in to take out these targets, especially Surface to Air Missile sites, though they had many other successful targets as well as time and circumstance allowed.
Part of their primary mission was to draw the early fire in air attacks. They faced heavy flak, SAM, and other anti-aircraft artillery attacks so that their teammates in other divisions could go in and deliver the kills on military targets. We learn from this tale that the Wild Weasels did a lot of damage, but at a very high price in terms of the pilots (and planes).
We learn pretty early on, and see it reinforced again and again, that captured fighter pilots who didn’t survive their jets going down were perhaps luckier than the ones who survived. They often survived with serious injuries and then were subjected to terrible treatment by the North Vietnamese civilians and/or military who found them.
I wonder is this all still politically incorrect with the liberals and progressives to look at this subject in the US as an American citizen after all these years? I’m very glad to read this story and get a different perspective than the flower-power, anti-war sentiment I felt as a child in the 1960’s.
I’m not giving up that perspective. It was a powerful thing to experience as a child, but I’m glad to broaden my perspective now and understand what it might have been like trying to fight in the name of freedom, country, honor, and duty. I really hate war and how it devastates so many beautiful lives. When will our species out grow this terrible affliction of violence to “solve” problems?
April 18, 2016
A great read
As a mere AF Air Traffic Controller in Thailand (67 and 68) it was great to read about the aircraft, the locations and the battles the aircrews had to endure . Jegrafjr@gmail.com
As a mere AF Air Traffic Controller in Thailand (67 and 68) it was great to read about the aircraft, the locations and the battles the aircrews had to endure . Jegrafjr@gmail.com
July 11, 2017
Having read many autobiographies of the F-105 pilots and the Wild Weasel crews in Vietnam, when I saw Termite Hill I felt I had to read it.
And I was not disappointed.
The book wonderfully explores the tension, tragedy, and tenacity that was felt by the USAF squadrons in Thailand from 1966-67. the author creates a wonderful scene of tension and the difficulty the pilots had in surviving their missions and also in the tasking they received from their political masters.
For anyone interested in the USAF during the Vietnam War, particularly if interested in F-105 operations, I would highly recommend this book!
And I was not disappointed.
The book wonderfully explores the tension, tragedy, and tenacity that was felt by the USAF squadrons in Thailand from 1966-67. the author creates a wonderful scene of tension and the difficulty the pilots had in surviving their missions and also in the tasking they received from their political masters.
For anyone interested in the USAF during the Vietnam War, particularly if interested in F-105 operations, I would highly recommend this book!
August 22, 2025
A good war story.
Good character development and life style reality of the flying old warriors. My personal opinion to much time devoted to the enemy., they don’t deserve the humanism. More attention to the way they treated their own people like crap and the evils of communism. We should take note of our own commies and traitors in power in 2025. Handcuffs, prison and hangings.return us to the freedoms men like these have paid for in this nation since day 1
Good character development and life style reality of the flying old warriors. My personal opinion to much time devoted to the enemy., they don’t deserve the humanism. More attention to the way they treated their own people like crap and the evils of communism. We should take note of our own commies and traitors in power in 2025. Handcuffs, prison and hangings.return us to the freedoms men like these have paid for in this nation since day 1
July 6, 2023
Amazing novel based on true events
This book and the follow-on novels were recommended to me by Weasel EWO Stan Goldstein. This was a truly fantastic and realistic story. It was staggering to consider how hard it was to make it to 100 counters over North Vietnam, especially as a Wild Weasel. God bless them all!
This book and the follow-on novels were recommended to me by Weasel EWO Stan Goldstein. This was a truly fantastic and realistic story. It was staggering to consider how hard it was to make it to 100 counters over North Vietnam, especially as a Wild Weasel. God bless them all!
February 25, 2024
Read this about 30 years ago and absolutely loved it. With age comes a wider perspective and a lens for more nuanced writing. Really 3 1/2 stars. The battle scenes are first rate but some of the enemy characters are a bit caricatured and the sections with the romantic relationships dragged a bit and lowered the overall story.
January 13, 2022
The air war in Vietnam by a pilot who experienced it all. The politics and personalities on both sides.
Read
December 23, 2018If you’re a student of air combat or interested in the Vietnam experience this is a decent tertiary read. The machines and technology are impressive. The bravery of these combat pilots, and those who kept the birds flying - always inspiring. The cultural baggage this writer uncritically presents - antiquated views on women and lgbt people, contempt for those who opposed this war, would-be inspiring speeches on “born free by the grace of god,” - the opposite. The prose is workmanlike and the characters mostly feel like composite sketches. In all, it’s a snapshot of an era, filtered in rose at times, an unwitting caricature quite frequently, earnest but flawed.
I want to thank the author and all those who serve or have served. So often service-members are squandered on ill conceived missions, poorly thought out or just plain evil polices, exposed to unspeakable horror, ask to inflict unspeakable horror, and then they are expected to come home and function as normal. We owe them all a debt, even the homophobic, misogynistic ones, and that’s a fact. But we need to remember that homophobia and misogyny aren’t ok just because brave people have held to such attitudes.
I dreamed of being a fighter pilot as a girl, and dreamed of flying planes like the F-105 even though all the century series planes were being retired or made into drones and expended as aerial targets in my youth. I’m glad that today’s girls and young women can grow up to be fighter pilots. That’s one dream that eluded me. Reading books like this helps keep me in touch with it, as does visiting the F-105 Wild Weasel (62-432) we have at a local museum (Evergreen at McMinnville- you should go). I still look up when I hear fighter jets or see them fly out of PDX when I’m racing at Portland International Raceway. I’m sure I always will.
I want to thank the author and all those who serve or have served. So often service-members are squandered on ill conceived missions, poorly thought out or just plain evil polices, exposed to unspeakable horror, ask to inflict unspeakable horror, and then they are expected to come home and function as normal. We owe them all a debt, even the homophobic, misogynistic ones, and that’s a fact. But we need to remember that homophobia and misogyny aren’t ok just because brave people have held to such attitudes.
I dreamed of being a fighter pilot as a girl, and dreamed of flying planes like the F-105 even though all the century series planes were being retired or made into drones and expended as aerial targets in my youth. I’m glad that today’s girls and young women can grow up to be fighter pilots. That’s one dream that eluded me. Reading books like this helps keep me in touch with it, as does visiting the F-105 Wild Weasel (62-432) we have at a local museum (Evergreen at McMinnville- you should go). I still look up when I hear fighter jets or see them fly out of PDX when I’m racing at Portland International Raceway. I’m sure I always will.
September 29, 2016
Intense! The author does an outstanding job of putting you in the shoes and mindset of the key individuals involved!
An incredible read! The reader can really feel the emotions of the participants! I highly recommend this book and could not put it down!
An incredible read! The reader can really feel the emotions of the participants! I highly recommend this book and could not put it down!
April 1, 2017
Can't get enough of this historical fiction centered on the Vietnam Air War.
Let us not forget all POW/MIA's. Til they all come home! All gave some, so,me gave all! U. S. A.
Let us not forget all POW/MIA's. Til they all come home! All gave some, so,me gave all! U. S. A.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews