NCWN

THE SPEED OF HEAT: AN AIRLIFT WING AT WAR IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN by Thomas W. Young ISBN# 978-0-7864-3798-6 McFarland and Company, $35, June 2008

Description:

With its fleet of large transport aircraft, the U.S. can put personnel and      equipment anywhere on the globe within hours. In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in particular, virtually every soldier, every bullet, every pint of blood, every bite of food have arrived in the war zone by airlift.

 This book tells the story of one Air National Guard airlift wing as related by its   members. The 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard consisted of a squadron of 12 C-130 cargo planes, their crews, and all the supporting sections -- in all, more than 1,200 people. The author, a former Associated Press reporter turned aviator, flew as an active member of that unit and interviewed nearly 70 servicemen and women for this book. Their stories include aircrews who dodged surface-to-air missiles, mechanics who made combat repairs, flight nurses who treated and transported the wounded, and two motor pool truck drivers who survived a roadside bomb explosion.

Senior Master Sergeant Thomas Young is a flight engineer with the West Virginia Air National Guard, and a former writer and editor for the broadcast division of the Associated Press. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.