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HomeShop at BookSurgeLiterary CollectionsAmericanDeparture Message |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 8 customer reviews )
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Departure Message Nov 17, 2003
By Charles L. Lunsford
"Chuckradioop"
Rarely have I encounterd a book that has left me in dread of reaching the end. To escape within its pages to a more amiable world of droning engines and hit of Glenn Millar became a refuge few books are able to offer. A Classic suspense author or even a best seller couldn't write this book better, his penmanship grabs you where few writers are able to reach. He describes his desire to fly like so many of us in those tender years of youth. His first day in the Air Force certainly evokes certain passions again. The general underlying chaos of military service and the camaraderie missed in today's cut-throat world is amply highlighted on. Charles Lunsford is one of the last of a breed that provided flying with a link to the past. He was a Radio Operator and a Pilot's best friend in the sky until his replacement by silicone chips, making a Captain's job today even more solitary. Charles was an aircrew member in the unglamorous world of Combat Cargo of the 1950s. Air Traffic Control was then not a microphone and a frequency, but rather the arcane environment of dots and dashes and keen observance. His job was with the 12th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Wing, based at Dreux, Normandy. Serving in the Air Force of the prop wash days, he was positioned on the flight deck of an aircraft seldom mentioned anymore, the venerable C-119. Loaded with the classic equipment of aviation and communication, better known as the "Flying Boxcar." Because of its special design, it was able to encompass nearly every item the Army had on the ground. With a career of 25 years it last appeared in Vietnam known as AC-119K "Stingers" with offense capacity. Charles lived in the twilight zone of military aviation that carried Radio Operators, while getting to know Europe, Africa and the Middle East by its' runways, colorful currency and unflattering weather. Charles had an office and home on the flight deck. It was from this vantagepoint he was able to observe then a more placid world at his feet. The mixture of humour and panic will insist this book travel with you, like Charles did with his pilots. And when you reach the end, shut the engines down, switch off the lights and clean up the cockpit for the last time, Charles will have given you a great journey.
Departure Message by Charles Lunsford May 15, 2010
By Arlette Gaffrey
"Arlette Gaffrey"
"Departure Message" by Charles Lunsford is an interesting read especially for someone like me. I was never in the military and never had anything to do with airplanes except to take trips on them. So I wondered how I'd like this book. Well, much to my surprise I found this book not only educational but interesting and also entertaining.
This is Charles Lunsford's story about his years as a young enlisted man in the U.S. Air Force. Mr. Lunsford was a trained Airborn Radio Operator flying in the Air Force C-119 also known as "The Flying Boxcar". He was one of the last to send messages by International Morse Code. This was back in the 1950s and it was the way air traffic control information was used at the time. Although much of the technology about planes and the problems and things that happened were a little over my head, still the overall story was well worth the read. I especially enjoyed the fun and interesting things that happened when he was on leave.
I would say you owe it to yourself to buy this book and read it. You won't be sorry and you will learn things you probably never knew about the Air Force during the Cold War. Now I look forward to reading his second book "Boxcar Down".
Arlette Gaffrey, author of "A World Of His Own-In The Land Of The Creoles" and "Behind The Columns".
Come Fly With Charles..... Sep 24, 2007
By Ted E. Quackenbush
The book takes the reader on Charles Lunsford's many journeys during
his 3-year tour of duty flying as an Airborne Radio Operator on the US
Air Force's C-119 Flying Boxcar cargo planes.
He relates the many experiences encountered while stationed in France as his squadron's planes carried various types of cargo throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East during the Cold War years in the mid and late 1950's.
Those experiences, while he is "On Watch" doing his aircrew duties,
which included being proficient in sending and receiving International
Morse Code radio signals, can be humorous, be routine or provide some
very intense moments such as when in-flight emergencies occur on his
plane.
We are also treated to his off-duty adventures to the many foreign
cities he was able to visit.
Some of his former squadron's planes were pulled from Air Force Reserve
units in the late 1960's and converted to offensive "Stinger" fighting
gunships to be used in the Viet Nam War.
Lunsford has researched to find which of these planes were the ones chosen for this duty and then also found and contacted some of the Stinger aircrews who flew them. He then includes many first-hand accounts by those Stinger crews as they relive the experiences of their Stinger combat missions in Southeast Asia.
One can only wonder how this book would have continued on if Lunsford
had not returned to civilian life when his initial 4-year enlistment
was up and instead chosen to have an career in the Air Force and later
been able to become a Stinger crewman on one of those same beloved
C-119's he had flown on a decade earlier.
But then perhaps he would not have decided to embark on his writing
career when he did and we would not have Departure Message to read
today and that would be a shame.
Departure Message, Mar 23, 2007
By A reader
Departure Message is a memoir by a former Air Force radio operator who flew as a C-119 crew member from Dreux Air Base in France in the 1950s. As other reviewers have said, it is hard to put down. The narrative involves tails of flying slowly back and forth between USAF bases in Europe but the only thing droning here are the engines of his airplane.
This is a second edition and Lunsford has added some stories that readers of the earlier edition have sent to him. This is the Cold War Air Force in Europe, numbingly routine but always on edge.
Memoirs like this one often provide the only look available at small bits of American military life.
Some others are Belles of Shangri-La, The, a memoir by a U.S. Army doctor stationed with African-American soldiers in Liberia during WWII. They were protecting a Firestone rubber plantation and Roberts Field, a transport air base.
Also, Korea Between the Wars: A Soldier's Story, a memoir about a young man serving during the post war US military occupation of what became the Republic of Korea, and Vieques Island: A Few Good Men on Radio Hill, a recently written memoir about a young marine serving on Vieques Island 50 years ago.
There are many books available about WWII, the Korean War and the Cold War but you won't find many about flying for USAFE in 1950s, GIs in Liberia, the 1945-48 US military occupation of Korea, or serving on Vieques Island.
Radio Operators story Mar 17, 2007
By William R. Hill
This was Mr. Lunsfords position as an airborne radio operator when CW was the state of art. Great history of military flying in the 50s and around europe.
See all 8 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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