Welcome to Asp One

• John's first book,  Phantom Over Vietnam, was published in 1984 by Presidio Press at Novato, CA, the world's preeminent producer of military books. While it is no longer in print, I have prepared it in electronic form for Asp_One.

• Here's what Walter J. Boyne of the Smithsonian National Air Museum in Washington , DC  wrote of it in the fore piece of the Time/Life edition of the book:

WINGS OF WAR

Capturing the grit as well as the glory of air combat, Phantom over Vietnam is the most genuine picture of life in a Marine fighter squadron yet written. In relating the details of his two tours in a McDonnell F-4 Phantom, John Trotti paints a vivid picture of the stress of delivering ordnance in a hard—and ultimately pointless—war against elusive North Vietnamese forces. As he does so, he reveals how his own personality was transformed as he matured and came eventually to have a deeper understanding of the war and of his generation.

A stylish writer, Trotti portrays both the art and technique of flying, carrying the reader with him into the cockpit. He is a master of both the engineering and the aesthetics of flying, and he brings life to the routine procedures of a combat mission, so that the reader understands why each switch is thrown, why each knot of airspeed is gained, and how each maneuver is executed. Whether the mission is scrambling to assist 'troops in contact," dive bombing at night in a dark Laotian valley, or easing the probe into a refueling basket while the instrument panel gauges flicker on zero, Trotti coolly combines all the operational factors in a swift, flowing narrative. In doing so, he represents the best technical description of war flying to come out of Vietnam.

In many ways, Trotti's admiration for his airplane is a metaphor for his feelings about the military society in which he lives. He admires the Phantom's capabilities. It is fast, powerful, and able to carry a vast amount of ordnance. But he also is candid about its limitations, for it gulped fuel, left dark trails of smoke, and needed lots of maintenance. Similarly, he portrays his admiration for his fellow pilots, all of whom risked their lives as he did, and for the efforts of the United States to bolster a weak and sometimes difficult ally. At the same time, he doesn't hesitate to point out the shortcomings of our government in establishing ridiculous rules of engagement that made combat more costly and less effective than it could have been.

TIME

TIME-LIFE BOOKS INC.. ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA 22314

Trotti returned to the United States after his first combat tour and served as an instructor. When he went back to Vietnam, he found that he had changed, and so had the environment. He was shocked to find that "dope had become a major, perhaps the major, factor in unit performance in Vietnam, and provided the backdrop for the polarization at home." During his second tour he became more deeply aware of the problems of the Vietnamese people, just as he became disillusioned with the trend of the Marines to meet the Department of Defense demands for a paperwork measurement of hooches blown up, trenches strafed, or bodies counted.

John Trotti served for twelve years as a Marine fighter pilot. He left the military to take up his current career as a writer and editor. He is also the author of Marine Air: First to Fight. His flying has taken a marked turn, for instead of a MiG-killing Phantom, he, with a partner, now owns and flies a MiG-15.

Published in 1986, Marine Air was John's second book for Presidio Press. While it is several decades out of date, it  is still a nice (and accurate) picture of a time of transition for the Corps. Better still John did the book in conjunction with  the late George Hall, the world's foremost aviation photographer.

We still have a very limited number of copies , that we will be offering, with all proceeds (except for mailing costs) going to the Semper Fi Fund.

 Specially printed for John and George with 8 additional pages of color photos, there are only 30 copies left, and when they're gone, that's it. 

• When we find out how to manage this and what to charge, we'll let subscribers know the details.

We will be populating this Section in the very near future. 

• While we will provide subscribers with periodic updates, we promise not to wear our our welcome with a lot of garbage. We look on ourselves as your house guests, not freeloaders.

We will populate this area as we receive feedback and questions