Walter J. Boyne

Walter J. Boyne

Walter J. Boyne was inducted into the American Combat Airman Hall of Fame in 2011 and into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007, in recognition of his many contributions to air and space.

A career Air Force officer, Boyne retired in 1974, as a Colonel with 5,000 hours flying time in everything from the T-6 to the B-1B.

He joined the National Air & Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution after his retirement from the Air Force, and became acting director in 1981 and director in 1983.

Upon his retirement from the National Air & Space Museum in 1986, he began a third career of writing and consulting.

Now the author of over 50 books, he is among the few to have had best sellers on the fiction and the non-fiction list of the New York Times.

His most popular books include: Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force, 1947–1997, The Wild Blue: The Novel of the U.S. Air Force, Trophy for Eagles, Weapons of Desert Storm, The Smithsonian Book of Flight, The Leading Edge and Power Behind the Wheel.

Beyond the Wild Blue has been made into a five part video series of the same name for the History Channel. A previous work Clash of Wings: World War II in the Air has been made into a thirteen-part video series appearing on PBS, Speedvision and Wingspan.

His fourth career, in television, began with his co-founding the cable television channel “Wingspan: The Air and Space Channel, which was purchased by the Discovery Channel.

He is the president of Walter J. Boyne & Associates and the chairman of the National Aeronautic Association, the oldest and most prestigious aviation group in the United States. Consulting clients include museums as well as aviation, publishing and television companies.

A honor graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a BSBA, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh with an MBA. He received an honorary Doctorate of Aeronautical Science from Salem University in West Virginia.

For more information about Mr. Boyne and his books and other projects, please visit: http://air-boyne.com/
Focus On: Iran
Operation Iraqi Freedom: March 19–21, 2003
By: Walter J. Boyne | March 19, 2012
Tags:

Just as SOF operations had hunted down missiles and other important Iraqi weapons, many important initial air attacks came one day before “G” Day, March 20, the launch of ground operations.

These included intensified action by Operation Southern Watch aircraft using PGMs against military targets in both southern and western Iraq.

The targets included communications sites, mobile early-warning radar, an air-defense command center, SAM systems, long-range artillery positions, and an air traffic control facility at Basra.

The air traffic control facility’s wartime mission was to direct antiaircraft fire against coalition aircraft.

[More...]

Focus On: Afghanistan, Special Operations Teams
Apaches at Anaconda
By: Walter J. Boyne | February 29, 2012
Tags:

Operation Anaconda was a plan devised in February of 2002 to trap al Qaeda fighters who were attempting to gather their forces near the 10,000-foot Shah-I-Kot mountains of eastern Afghanistan. They had taken a severe drubbing at Kandahar and elsewhere and sought the security of remote areas to regain their strength. They were observed gathering in Shah-e-Kot Valley near Gardez.

In December of 2001, other al Qaeda fighters had managed to survive the bombing of Tora Bora and escape. This time the United States was determined to put about American-trained Afghan soldiers and as many as 200 highly trained special forces from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, and Norway into the area. These troops were to rouse the al Qaeda and force them to retreat to a point where American forces of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions held key positions, along with special operation forces.

The entire operation was planned and led by Major General Franklin L. Hagenback, who believed it would take about seventy-two hours to accomplish what he termed a “classic hammer and anvil” maneuver.

[More...]

Focus On: Vietnam War
How the Helicopter Changed Modern Warfare: Vietnam
By: Walter J. Boyne | November 18, 2011
Tags: ,

Establishment of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

The combined results of [testing] and the operations in Vietnam led to the establishment of the iconic 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), unit­ing the resources of the Second Infantry Division and the 11th Air As­sault Division (Test).

There was a mad scramble to obtain the necessary personnel and equipment, but an advance party arrived in the Republic of Vietnam on August 25, 1965. It immediately proceeded to An Khe, where it began a new tradition.

[More...]

Focus On: Historic Battles
Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force, 1947-2007, by Walter J. Boyne
Strike Against Qaddafi
By: Walter J. Boyne | February 28, 2011
Tags:
Planning for a retaliatory raid had begun in January. The assignment to strike selected targets in the Tripoli area on the night of April 14–15, 1986, was given to the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at Lakenheath, England, which was equipped with General Dynamics F-111 Aardvarks. Six Navy McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets, six Vought A-7E Corsair IIs, and fourteen Grumman A-6E Intruders from the carriers America and Coral Sea were to support the USAF mission, while other naval forces engaged in attacks on separate targets in eastern Libya. Most of the crew members going on the mission had never been in combat. [More...]
  4. Age
Submit