Author of a historical book about the Combat Talon is looking for your stories

Steve Stein is writing a history of the MC-130E Combat Talon and the MC-130H Combat Talon II for AFSOC. His book will finish the story begun in Jerry Thigpen’s Praetorian Starship, focusing on Combat Talon operations since 1998, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also the numerous humanitarian operations they participated in (Vietnam, Thailand, Haiti, Japan, and more), and less studied deployments such as in the Balkans (Kosovo) and Latin America. He would love to talk to Combat Talon crew members who flew in these missions and get their stories. He hopes to devote one chapter of the book to ground crews, about which very little is written, and would appreciate any help in that direction, as well. Steve’s will overlap a little with Praetorian Starship, so he’s happy to talk to folks who flew Talons in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

For those who want to know a little about Steve, he earned his PhD in military history from The Ohio State University in 1999 and recently retired as professor of history from the University of Memphis. He’s taught strategy for the Naval War College in their distance education program since 2000, and continues to do so as a Fleet Seminar Professor. His first book was on naval history and the first years of naval aviation (the Wright Brothers & Glenn Curtiss era), but he’s branched out since then. At Ohio State, he worked with Profs Allen Millett, Williamson Murray, and Joe Guilmartin (a Vietnam era rescue pilot who also flew in the Mayaguez Operation and wrote the book on it).
You can reach Steve at stvstein@mac.com and 901-343-3228.

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