Racing Back To Vietnam: A Journey in War and Peace

Description

In 1971, John Pendergrass was seated in the back of an F-4 Phantom, racing across the skies of Vietnam as a United States Air Force flight surgeon. Forty-five years later, Pendergrass boards an altogether different type of airplane and heads to Vietnam for an altogether different kind of race. A veteran of IRONMAN triathlons on every inhabited continent, Racing Back to Vietnam follows Pendergrass as he returns to Vietnam in more ways than one - revisiting a country that, for him, is bound up in a complicated mess of memory and emotion.

Dr. John Pendergrass is an eye surgeon, decorated Vietnam veteran, and six-time IRONMAN triathlon competitor. A native Mississippian, he graduated from Delta State College and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Mississippi. Pendergrass is the first person over 60 to ever compete in six IRONMAN triathlons on six continents, which served as the inspiration for his first book, Against the Odds. Pendergrass is married with three children and has practiced ophthalmology in Hattiesburg, MS for over 40 years.

"This book is a look at life in a fighter squadron in Vietnam from someone focused on saving lives. The flight surgeon is an integral part of a fighter squadron, especially in combat. It's an easy read that brought back some good memories... and some not-so-good." -Chuck DeBellevue, America's top fighter ace during the Vietnam War "A superb, first-hand account of combat flying. Highly readable, this is an informative and honest look at one man's personal experiences during the Vietnam War." -Dan Hampton, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight, Viper Pilot, and The Hunter Killers "This well-written memoir grabs your attention as the author describes his service in Vietnam as a physician and as an F-4 Phantom backseater. His accounts of today's Vietnam, its history and people, ring true and insightful. Honest memoirs of that miserable war are few. This is one of the best. I know; I was there." -Ed Cobleigh, author of War for the Hell of It and The Pilot