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Wings of War #4
Eagle Station
A gripping, compelling tale of a race against the clock to save a crucial radar station.
Audio Cassette
First published May 14, 1992
69 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Mark Berent
24 books32 followerssource: BN Nook Store
Meet the Author
MARK BERENT
Lt Col Mark E. Berent, USAF (Ret), was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from Cretin High
School and attended St. Thomas College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Later he graduated from Arizona State University under the Air Force Institute of Technology program with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Lt Col Berent began his Air Force career as an enlisted man, then progressed through the aviation cadet program. He attended pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi and then Laredo Air Force Base, Texas flying the T-6, T-28 and T-33 aircraft and then moved on to F-86s at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. He served on active duty for 23 years until retirement in 1974. He began his operational flying career in the F-86 and F-100 flying at various posts throughout the United States and Europe. He later served three combat tours, completing 452 combat sorties, first in the F-100 at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, the F-4 at Ubon Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, and then in Cambodia for two years to fly things with propellers on them and through a fluke in communications timing, to personally run the air war for a few weeks.
He has also served two tours at the United States Space and Missile System Organization (SAMSO) at Los Angeles, California working first in the Satellites Control Facility and later as a staff developmental engineer for the space shuttle. In his expansive career he has seen service as an Air Attaché to the United States Embassy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and also as Chief of Test Control Branch at the Air Development and Test Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He also served as an instructor at the Air Force's Squadron Officer School.
During his flying career he has logged over 4300 hours of flying time, 1084 of those in combat missions in the F-100, F-4, C-47 and U-10 over North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. He has flown 30 different aircraft.
His decorations include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leaf cluster, Bronze Star, Air Medal with twenty four oak leaf clusters, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, Cambodian Divisional Medal, and numerous Vietnam Campaign ribbons. He completed jump school with the Special Forces. Later, he jumped with and was awarded Cambodian paratrooper wings. He also flew with and received Cambodian pilot wings.
After leaving the Air Force he lived in Europe to establish and direct international operations for the sale of spares for combat aircraft. He has flown many foreign aircraft such as the Swedish Viggen and Royal Air Force Jaguar and Hawk. He also established Berent and Woods Inc, a firm that managed many aviation related activities.
Over the years he had published numerous articles for such publications as Air Force Magazine and the Washington Times and for 18 years wrote a monthly pilot/reporter column for the Asian Defense Journal. Under the name Berent Sandberg he and Peter Sandberg collaborated on three novels. He now has five Vietnam air war flying novels in print, Rolling Thunder, Steel Tiger, Phantom Leader, Eagle Station, and Storm Flight.
Berent states it is never too late for any endeavor: he published the first of his five books at age 58, ran his first Marathon at 59, bought a T-6 warbird and flew in airshows at 64, and rode in his first cattle roundup in Montana at 74.
Meet the Author
MARK BERENT
Lt Col Mark E. Berent, USAF (Ret), was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from Cretin High
School and attended St. Thomas College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Later he graduated from Arizona State University under the Air Force Institute of Technology program with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Lt Col Berent began his Air Force career as an enlisted man, then progressed through the aviation cadet program. He attended pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi and then Laredo Air Force Base, Texas flying the T-6, T-28 and T-33 aircraft and then moved on to F-86s at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. He served on active duty for 23 years until retirement in 1974. He began his operational flying career in the F-86 and F-100 flying at various posts throughout the United States and Europe. He later served three combat tours, completing 452 combat sorties, first in the F-100 at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, the F-4 at Ubon Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, and then in Cambodia for two years to fly things with propellers on them and through a fluke in communications timing, to personally run the air war for a few weeks.
He has also served two tours at the United States Space and Missile System Organization (SAMSO) at Los Angeles, California working first in the Satellites Control Facility and later as a staff developmental engineer for the space shuttle. In his expansive career he has seen service as an Air Attaché to the United States Embassy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and also as Chief of Test Control Branch at the Air Development and Test Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He also served as an instructor at the Air Force's Squadron Officer School.
During his flying career he has logged over 4300 hours of flying time, 1084 of those in combat missions in the F-100, F-4, C-47 and U-10 over North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. He has flown 30 different aircraft.
His decorations include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leaf cluster, Bronze Star, Air Medal with twenty four oak leaf clusters, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, Cambodian Divisional Medal, and numerous Vietnam Campaign ribbons. He completed jump school with the Special Forces. Later, he jumped with and was awarded Cambodian paratrooper wings. He also flew with and received Cambodian pilot wings.
After leaving the Air Force he lived in Europe to establish and direct international operations for the sale of spares for combat aircraft. He has flown many foreign aircraft such as the Swedish Viggen and Royal Air Force Jaguar and Hawk. He also established Berent and Woods Inc, a firm that managed many aviation related activities.
Over the years he had published numerous articles for such publications as Air Force Magazine and the Washington Times and for 18 years wrote a monthly pilot/reporter column for the Asian Defense Journal. Under the name Berent Sandberg he and Peter Sandberg collaborated on three novels. He now has five Vietnam air war flying novels in print, Rolling Thunder, Steel Tiger, Phantom Leader, Eagle Station, and Storm Flight.
Berent states it is never too late for any endeavor: he published the first of his five books at age 58, ran his first Marathon at 59, bought a T-6 warbird and flew in airshows at 64, and rode in his first cattle roundup in Montana at 74.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 30, 2017
In the fourth installment of the "Wings of War" series, we are plunged into the turmoil, confusion, frustration, and desperation of the Vietnam conflict in 1968. With familiar characters as our guides, as well as a few new ones, Berent captures the reader's interest on the first page and doesn't let go even when the book is over. The author also addresses the experiences of prisoners of war with deep empathy. Clearly, war isn't just men in two groups fighting with each other. There are plenty of political, cultural, and economic strings that weave themselves into the diabolical knots of modern international combat. Here we glimpse the birth of the "technological war," a war fought with machines, sometimes from thousands of miles away. Even with all the hardware, the story is undeniably about humankind, and a fierce, passionate, and sensitive heart beats at the core of this excellent book.
September 12, 2017
Very well written with drama and action.
April 20, 2018
Kept me interested through all 386 small print pages.
May 24, 2020
Fantastic!
November 23, 2014
I picked up this book because I was looking for a war novel for some undemanding entertainment. Unfortunately this wasn't it. About the only good thing I can say about the book is that the battle at Eagle Station, which took up the last forty or fifty pages of the book was exciting.
It's not that I was expecting a lot out of the book. The one-dimensional characters were what I would expect, as were the US equals good guys, VC and NVA equal the bad guys. I also wasn't expecting particularly well-written prose.
However, I had hoped for a well-developed narrative, which this book didn't have. For example, it opens at the Air Force Academy where two first-year cadets, Dominguez and Tanaka, were mercilessly harassed by an upper classman because he saw them as foreigners. As a result, Dominguez ends up getting bounced out of the Academy. Having set it up like that one would expect that the narrative would develop around the relationships and conflicts between these men. Didn't happen. As a matter of fact, they all turn out to be secondary characters. There are numerous other flaws in the narrative that I could mention, but you get the point.
As for the good guy versus bad guy dialectic. Berent takes it to ludicrous extremes. All of the American good guys are stand-up guys, and their women are their matches. The one American bad guy, the one who bullied Dominguez and Tanaka, is a despicable individual, and his wife is an alcoholic bitch. The Vietnamese enemy are vile and conniving, and Americans who are opposed to the war are unlikeable and treasonous. Not only that, but there's a character in the person of a General Whisenand who rails against Robert McNamara and LBJ for ruining the military, McNamara for introducing operations research techniques into the military, and LBJ because he refused to permit the Air Force to bomb North Vietnam back into the Stone Age. It all gets to be a bit much.
It's not that I was expecting a lot out of the book. The one-dimensional characters were what I would expect, as were the US equals good guys, VC and NVA equal the bad guys. I also wasn't expecting particularly well-written prose.
However, I had hoped for a well-developed narrative, which this book didn't have. For example, it opens at the Air Force Academy where two first-year cadets, Dominguez and Tanaka, were mercilessly harassed by an upper classman because he saw them as foreigners. As a result, Dominguez ends up getting bounced out of the Academy. Having set it up like that one would expect that the narrative would develop around the relationships and conflicts between these men. Didn't happen. As a matter of fact, they all turn out to be secondary characters. There are numerous other flaws in the narrative that I could mention, but you get the point.
As for the good guy versus bad guy dialectic. Berent takes it to ludicrous extremes. All of the American good guys are stand-up guys, and their women are their matches. The one American bad guy, the one who bullied Dominguez and Tanaka, is a despicable individual, and his wife is an alcoholic bitch. The Vietnamese enemy are vile and conniving, and Americans who are opposed to the war are unlikeable and treasonous. Not only that, but there's a character in the person of a General Whisenand who rails against Robert McNamara and LBJ for ruining the military, McNamara for introducing operations research techniques into the military, and LBJ because he refused to permit the Air Force to bomb North Vietnam back into the Stone Age. It all gets to be a bit much.
June 28, 2015
I didn't even make it to the first 100 pages. It was dull. Boring. Bland. I've read plenty of Vietnam books that were gripping, immediately, engaging, enthralling. This was none of that. There was one short piece of action, but not much else. Additionally, the book opens with two first-year Air Force Academy cadets, Dominguez and Tanaka, who are mercilessly harassed/hazed by an upper classman just cause he's a dick. You think these guys are going to be the primary protagonists when the plot shifts to Vietnam several years later, but it seems to turn out that they're merely secondary characters. So why lead off the book with them? It's confusing. Maybe it's just cause I'm not an Air Force guy. Maybe it's cause I'm more of a grunt on the ground guy, or even a Special Forces guy. The grunts have to survive in hostile territory in fear and terror 24/7 while the Air Force guys fly an hour or so, drop a few bombs, fly back and have cocktails. Big damn deal. I guess I'm jaded because I know the Air Force is important, especially these days, but I find more to enjoy reading an infantryman's book than an Air Force man's book, I guess. Whatever the case, I wasn't impressed with the writing, with the plotting, with the set up, with none of it and, especially as I didn't finish it, I'm afraid I can't recommend it.
September 2, 2015
This 4th installment of the series continues in realistic excellence. That may be boring for some. Real war told well should be enough excitement. This story does that very well. I admit there are less fighter jets going zoom-zoom and bang-bang, You have to remember the war was on the ground where most of the people are. I continue love following these characters and have already started reading book 5. I bet I will be wishing for a book 6 when it is done.
January 11, 2014
The 4th installment of the Rolling Thunder series, a historical fiction book about war and politics in the Vietnam era. This episode follows Court and Wolf as well as some new characters as they attempt to defend a radar sight in Laos, on the border of North Vietnam. It also looks in on the treatment of Major "Flak" Apple, POW.
March 25, 2014
Excellent book
another great job by a man who lived the life and didn't get the respect he deserved when he got home.
Thank You Mark and all who served in vietnam(sorry I still can not capitalize that name)
another great job by a man who lived the life and didn't get the respect he deserved when he got home.
Thank You Mark and all who served in vietnam(sorry I still can not capitalize that name)
February 4, 2011
Read the Berent series many years ago, but remember enjoying them.
November 21, 2014
A Bit Disappointing
In Mark Brent's first three books all of
the characters were believable but not in this one. The Powers couple, particularly her, were a distraction.
In Mark Brent's first three books all of
the characters were believable but not in this one. The Powers couple, particularly her, were a distraction.
February 28, 2015
Very good, fast moving and eye-opening.
Read
September 13, 2015excellent war story and post war look at the stupid politics of LBJ
April 22, 2017
Book Four, Eagle Station
This book was a little more detail oriented. I learned a lot about about the Air war on Vietnam as well as the Special Forces.
This book was a little more detail oriented. I learned a lot about about the Air war on Vietnam as well as the Special Forces.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews