Flying Through Midnight

In 1970, a young American pilot arrived at a dusty, half-deserted U.S. air force base and found himself on a battlefront he'd never heard of: the secret black-ops war in Laos.

John T. Halliday was instructed to fly a retrofitted C-123 transport to direct night-time air strikes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The mission sent Halliday, his plane, and his fellow men into the teeth of enemy fire—and required breaking every rule he had ever learned about flying.

In this compelling account, Halliday takes us inside a top-secret air base and into the cockpit of an antiquated plane that was a lifeline for special forces on the ground. As he chronicles his evolution from a by-the-book flyboy to a daring warrior of the night, he also tells the story of a truly heroic, seemingly impossible flight: of how he and his men survived a horrific engagement with the enemy, attempted a harrowing a crash landing, and what they found deep inside a forbidden land…

A WAR THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE

In 1970, a young American pilot arrived at a dusty, half-deserted U.S. air force base and found himself on a battlefront he'd never heard of: the secret black-ops war in Laos.

A MISSION YOU COULDN'T TRAIN FOR

John T. Halliday was instructed to fly a retrofitted C-123 transport to direct night-time air strikes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The mission sent Halliday, his plane, and his fellow men into the teeth of enemy fire—and required breaking every rule he had ever learned about flying.

A TRUE STORY OF EXTRAORDINARY COURAGE AND SURVIVAL AGAINST ALL ODDS

In this compelling account, Halliday takes us inside a top-secret air base and into the cockpit of an antiquated plane that was a lifeline for special forces on the ground. As he chronicles his evolution from a by-the-book flyboy to a daring warrior of the night, he also tells the story of a truly heroic, seemingly impossible flight: of how he and his men survived a horrific engagement with the enemy, attempted a harrowing a crash landing, and what they found deep inside a forbidden land…

"An eternal story that transcends any war."—John J. Nance, author of Free Flight

"This book is as much about confronting the past as describing it."—USA Today

JOHN T. HALLIDAY retired from American Airlines as a Boeing 767 captain. He served in the military for twenty-six years and retired as a lieutenant colonel. A decorated war hero, he logged more than eight hundred hours of combat time in Southeast Asia and the Gulf War. Flying Through Midnight is his first book. Please visit the author's Web site at www.flyingthroughmidnight.com.