BAT 21 is the true story of Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton. This story details his 2 week long struggle to avoid capture by the Vietcong. The reader gets to experience with Col. Hambleton the harrowing experience of being shot down in Vietnam and trying to avoid capture, and the thing that makes the book even better is the fact that it's true.
"Bird Dog, this is Bat-21!" I remember having seen the movie that was based on this book in the 1980's and ran across this book while browsing here on Amazon and bought it. Glad I did.

This is the story of the ordeal Iceal Hambleton, a Lt. Colonel in the USAF, who was navigator of an EB-66 electronic warfare aircraft shot down during the 1972 North Vietnam offensive. Hambleton, the lone survivor of his aircraft, parachuted into the midst of the NVA invasion of the south.

The Air Force and Hambleton began a physical and mental battle with the NVA who they had a grudging respect for. For twelve days, the US military both kept the communist Vietnamese from capturing Hambleton and planned a method of getting Hambleton out. Men died in the attempt to rescue Hambleton as jets, prop-driven aircraft as well as helicopters were employed to fight to keep Hambleton from the clutches of the NVA and some were lost in the attempt.

As a military history reader, I was impressed by the efficiency of USAF SAR (Search and Rescue) methods. "Gravel" was a weapon and technique I had never heard of. The use of "Sandies", jets, helicopters and small observation aircraft flown by FACs, or Forward Air Controllers, - even B-52s - all combined to keep the NVA back on their heels while Hambleton made his escape.