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Fighter Pilot, the Memoirs of BG Robin Olds. While it covers his long life, most importantly this is a book about combat leadership.
Robin Olds was probably best USAF fighter wing commander of the VN war. He was a dynamic leader who made the 8th Tac Fighter Wing, at Ubon, second to none, and himself flew 152 missions. I served in the 8TFW after Olds time, but he had made his mark before he left in 1967.
In his memoir, published after his death in 2007, he made frequent mention of extensive pre-mission work in the wing intel shop. In the summer of 1971, Olds was USAF Directory of Safety at the IG, and I was at Ubon on the 1800-0600 shift in the 8TFW intel shop doing post-mission debriefs. Due to bad wx not much was flying that night and I had little work. Around midnight a face appeared in the door and it was BG Robin Olds, coming around see what was happening in intel. If it had been Santa Claus himself I could not have been more surprised or pleased. He was legendary and the few minutes I spent with him are burned into my memory.
All I am sure all of us who have come into contact with true combat leaders will recognize those qualities that made those leaders great. Very quickly I could see those qualities in BG Olds and if he had said, "Follow me", I would have without question.
He was a commander who understood the importance of NCOs in the scheme of things. He would frequently go to the NCO club, buy the beer, and listen.
His memoirs are a good read, covering WWII and VN. Good accounts of shooting down Germans, and of strikes into the North. Good humor, frustrations with HQs and Pentagon, etc.
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