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Vietnam 1965: and the limited air strike programme, code-named Rolling Thunder, has already been set in motion. The USAF bombing is gradually moving northwards from the 17th parallel of the demilitarised zone towards Hanoi. The scale of the attacks, the weaponry and the timing are all strictly controlled and dictated by the White House and the thunder rolls further north with every strike. But the war itself knows no limits. For USAF Captain Court Bannister, it is a war of obsolescent fighter-bombers flown by men like himself, men who had dreamed of becoming astronauts but who are forced to confront missiles, MiGs and nerve-shredding bombing raids.

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