Hey! That's Dan Ford on the radio!

[Dan Luke[_2_]]

Anyone else hear our own Dan Ford talking about the Flying Tigers on XM
Public Radio's Bob Edwards Show this morning? Very nice, long interview with
Dan about the AVG.


--
Dan
T-182T at BFM

[Larry Dighera]

On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 08:38:09 -0500, "Dan Luke"
> wrote in
>:

>Anyone else hear our own Dan Ford talking about the Flying Tigers on XM
>Public Radio's Bob Edwards Show this morning? Very nice, long interview with
>Dan about the AVG.

Apparently the show is available for download here:
http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/eLogin.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

[Paul Tomblin]

In a previous article, "Dan Luke" > said:
>Anyone else hear our own Dan Ford talking about the Flying Tigers on XM
>Public Radio's Bob Edwards Show this morning? Very nice, long interview with
>Dan about the AVG.

So, did Erik Schilling phone in to tell him all the mistakes he made in
his books?


--
Paul Tomblin > http://blog.xcski.com/
Usenet should require licenses; licenses that can be revoked.
-- Abigail

[Dan Luke[_2_]]

"Paul Tomblin" wrote:

>>Anyone else hear our own Dan Ford talking about the Flying Tigers on XM
>>Public Radio's Bob Edwards Show this morning? Very nice, long interview
>>with
>>Dan about the AVG.
>
> So, did Erik Schilling phone in to tell him all the mistakes he made in
> his books?

It wasn't a call-in show.

Perhaps you could list them for us.

--
Dan
T-182T at BFM

[Gig 601XL Builder]

Larry Dighera wrote:
> On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 08:38:09 -0500, "Dan Luke"
> > wrote in
> >:
>
>> Anyone else hear our own Dan Ford talking about the Flying Tigers on
>> XM Public Radio's Bob Edwards Show this morning? Very nice, long
>> interview with Dan about the AVG.
>
> Apparently the show is available for download here:
> http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/eLogin.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

The show will rebroadcast at 8pm EDT tonnight.

[Paul Tomblin]

In a previous article, "Dan Luke" > said:
>"Paul Tomblin" wrote:
>>>Anyone else hear our own Dan Ford talking about the Flying Tigers on XM
>>>Public Radio's Bob Edwards Show this morning? Very nice, long interview
>>>with
>>>Dan about the AVG.
>>
>> So, did Erik Schilling phone in to tell him all the mistakes he made in
>> his books?
>
>It wasn't a call-in show.
>
>Perhaps you could list them for us.

Erik and Dan had some epic flame wars on rec.aviation.military after his
first book on the Flying Tigers. He says that in this book, he actually
corrected some of the mistakes Erik pointed out.

Most of the flames were about:
a) Dan and Erik disagreed about what type of P-40 Erik flew, specifically
about whether the self-sealing material was on the outside or inside the
gas tanks. I believe Dan has agreed that Erik was correct on that issue
now.

b) Dan claimed that Flying Tigers pilots bought kills off of British
pilots so that they could collect the AVG kill bonus. And overclaimed
like crazy. He justified that by citing a lack of Japanese records, in
spite of the fact that the Japanese burned their records by the truckload
as they retreated. He also made a big deal about the lack of wreckage, in
spite of the fact that much of the combat was over a mostly trackless
jungle where wrecks are still turning up now. I'm not sure if Dan has
modified his claims in his new book.


--
Paul Tomblin > http://blog.xcski.com/
Either way, it'll remind the clued that there's only one letter
difference between 'turkey' and 'turnkey'.
-- Mike Andrews

[Cubdriver]

On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 18:09:13 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:

>a) Dan and Erik disagreed about what type of P-40 Erik flew, specifically
>about whether the self-sealing material was on the outside or inside the
>gas tanks. I believe Dan has agreed that Erik was correct on that issue
>now.

Correct.

>b) Dan claimed that Flying Tigers pilots bought kills off of British
>pilots so that they could collect the AVG kill bonus.

Nonsense. Indeed, the book specifically refutes that story.

>And overclaimed
>like crazy. He justified that by citing a lack of Japanese records, in
>spite of the fact that the Japanese burned their records by the truckload
>as they retreated. He also made a big deal about the lack of wreckage, in
>spite of the fact that much of the combat was over a mostly trackless
>jungle where wrecks are still turning up now. I'm not sure if Dan has
>modified his claims in his new book.

They didn't overclaim like crazy--they overclaimed like the US Marines
at Guadalcanal or the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Burma, by a
factor of 2.5 to 1. That level of overclaiming was just about
universal in World War II.

I did uncover some additional information, including the names of some
Japanese pilots lost over Burma, and the exact number of planes
destroyed by Jernstedt and Reed in their amazing strafe of Moulmein,
but the total number (110-120 Japanese planes destroyed) remains the
same.

Erik, by the way, helped a great deal in sorting out the oddities of
the AVG P-40s, and he is duly thanked in the preface to the new
edition. We got on pretty well after we took the discussion offline.
See for example www.warbirdforum.com/manual.htm for his running
commentary on the RAF pilot's manual.





Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com

[Dan Luke[_2_]]

"Cubdriver" wrote:

> I did uncover some additional information, including the names of some
> Japanese pilots lost over Burma, and the exact number of planes
> destroyed by Jernstedt and Reed in their amazing strafe of Moulmein,
> but the total number (110-120 Japanese planes destroyed) remains the
> same.

Your book's up next on my reading table; I'm really looking forward to it.

So what was Bob Edwards like? Tell us about the interview!

--
Dan
T-182T at BFM

[Cubdriver]

On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 16:43:12 -0500, "Dan Luke"
> wrote:

>So what was Bob Edwards like? Tell us about the interview!

You know as much as I do, if you heard it! The program has an
arrangement with NPR, evidently, for I drove over to the public
broadcasting station forty miles away and was given a studio with a
very impressive mike (okay: mic) and a desk with a bottle of water on
it. At the appointed moment an assistant came on and asked me what I'd
had for breakfast. That was an easy question: the local NPR guys had
already asked it. Evidently it's the standard way to get a microphone
check.

The interview was about an hour. I think the broadcast was about half
that. I distinctly remember saying at one point: Well, I blew that
one. Ask me another. It was edited out, of course, but other than that
I didn't notice any editing, but I'm sure there was some.

I bought the download from audible.com -- thanks to whoever it was who
provided the link.


Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com