From a Dark Sky

by Orr Kelly

In From a Dark Sky: The Story of U.S. Air Force Special Operations military affairs specialist Orr Kelly tells for the first time the complete, uncensored history of Air Force special operations: a history that had been up to now shrouded in cover stories, secrecy, and deception. Whether they called themselves Air Commandos, Carpetbaggers, or Ravens, they were the ones called on to do the "impossible" jobs - that other Air Force units couldn't, or wouldn't, do. Whether these missions involved flying behind enemy lines or introducing unique new weapons such as the fixed-wing AC-47 gunship or the Pave Low helicopter, the air commandos have been a vital part of America's modern war-waging capability. Kelly describes the action going back to the 1940s when the Army Air Force provided aerial aid to anti-Nazi partisans and successfully extracted scores of downed American pilots. Helicopter insertion of agents into enemy territory during the Korean War, clandestine CIA missions in Southeast A