Page 39 - June2019

Book of the Month

DRAGON'S JAW

Stephen Coonts and master aviation historian
Barrett Tillman have teamed up to write a riveting
history of the aerial campaign against the most
difficult target in North Vietnam, the Dragon's
Jaw, the bridge at Thanh Hoa that spanned the
Ma River. For seven long years hundreds of young
US airmen flew sortie after sortie against North
Vietnam's formidable, overbuilt heavily defended
railroad and highway bridge.

Time and again American Air Force and Navy
pilots dodged blistering anti-aircraft fire, surface-
to-air missiles and enemy fighters, yet many of
them were shot down, killed or captured. The
bridge stood as if it were made of kryptonite. For
the North Vietnamese, the bridge became a
symbol of their patriotic resistance; for US war
planners an obsession; for US airmen a testament
to American mettle and valor.

Using after-action reports, official records, and
interviews with surviving pilots, as well as
previously untapped North Vietnamese sources,
Dragon's Jaw chronicles American efforts to
destroy the bridge strike by bloody strike, putting
readers into the cockpit under fire, as only
Stephen Coonts can do.

The story of the Dragon's Jaw is rich in courage
and audacity, an epic tale against a determined
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