John Darrell Sherwood - Afterburner

Afterburner

Afterburner: Naval Aviators and the Vietnam War (2004) is the first book published by Sherwood as an official historian at the U.S. Naval Historical Center. As a consequence, he collects no royalties for the project. The book combines traditional operational history with social history to tell the story of U.S. Navy air power during the latter stages of the Vietnam War, 1968-1972. As such, it covers the American bombing campaign in Laos, Operation Linebacker, and Operation Pocket Money (the U.S. Navy's 1972 aerial mining operations against North Vietnam). It also provides in-depth portraits of 21 naval aviators who fought in Vietnam. The book received honorable mention for the North American Society for Oceanic History's John Lyman Book Award in 2004.