Last of the Breed

Songs can often capture an image better than simple words. Here’s a perfect example:

Last of the Breed

Listen carefully. There aren’t many like that, but here is the man that Dos Gringos might have been talking about. This is the cover story from the current (June ’08) issue of Air Force Magazine:

The Robin Olds Factor

It was my privilege and great honor to have known the man. I didn’t get to fly with him, in fact I had already completed my F-105 tour when he arrived to put some spine into the 8th Tac Fighter Wing at Ubon and we didn’t cross paths until much later. Then I had the opportunity to talk with him on several occasions and was always impressed by his graciousness, honesty about his opinions and his ability to express the core values that he held.

After my second book, “Palace Cobra” was released I thought long and hard about a new project. One that I discussed several years ago on my web site, www.thunderchief.org, was a memoir of Robin. I could “ghost” it with his help or edit his own writings. We talked about it a couple of times and he was adamant that no one would put words in his mouth, not even me. And he was equally adamant that he already had most of it down on paper. I had lingering doubt about that. Robin passed away in June of 2007 and the project didn’t get started.

In January of this year, I linked up with Robin’s daughter, Christina. She was with him during the final months of his life when his years inevitably caught up with him. We’re now working together on that book, tentatively titled, “The Name is Olds” and we hope to have it in reader’s hands within a year.

Much has been written about this authentic American hero, but now the world will be able to read what he thought and felt at those times. He has left us a powerful legacy in clear and powerful language of what his life and his country meant to him. We are making a very sincere effort to insure that those thoughts and impressions are preserved.

It should be a great book.