Overview

The author ejects from his burning Navy jet onto a karst ridge near Hanoi, and what follows is one of the most implausible and heroic rescues of the air-war. The events immediately following carry him to a secret base in Laos and then to a makeshift hospital in Saigon. The larger story, however, is of a man's complex relationship with Vietnam. It begins in Saigon, where he completes high school and comes to love the Vietnamese people. When he departs for college, he believes he's done with the country. But as a Navy pilot, it's a direct line back. After he leaves the Navy, Vietnam tightens its grip. Three decades later, he climbs the ridge where he and his flight leader were shot down. He learns his guide's brother was one of the gunners-then she leads him deep into a cave. Later that day, seated at a table in her thatched home, he begins to find reconciliation.

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9780578760957

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Reviews

What a story! Before I picked up Return to Saigon I knew almost nothing about the life of a Navy pilot in Vietnam. The more I read, the more fascinating a subject it became. This book perfectly balances its necessarily compelling human elements--the real life of a normal American guy--with the almost unbelievable feats and technical acumen of a top-notch fighter pilot (and one who suffered a harrowing crash and rescue at that!). War makes heroes of regular people, and this memoir shows how that happened to one guy, who, in his telling of his story, makes clear that he never did, and likely never will, see himself as anyone's hero. But you'll never be able to think of him as anything else. John Shore Author: Everywhere She's Not (winner of the Best New Fiction, 2020 American Fiction Award)

What a story! Before I picked up Return to Saigon I knew almost nothing about the life of a Navy pilot in Vietnam. The more I read, the more fascinating a subject it became. This book perfectly balances its necessarily compelling human elements--the real life of a normal American guy--with the almost unbelievable feats and technical acumen of a top-notch fighter pilot (and one who suffered a harrowing crash and rescue at that!). War makes heroes of regular people, and this memoir shows how that happened to one guy, who, in his telling of his story, makes clear that he never did, and likely never will, see himself as anyone's hero. But you'll never be able to think of him as anything else. John Shore Author: Everywhere She's Not (winner of the Best New Fiction, 2020 American Fiction Award)

Author Information

Larry Duthie finished high school in Saigon during the lull between the war with France and the war America fought in Vietnam. He tried college, but dropped out and ended up as a sailor in the Navy, where he was an electronics technician. But a fortuitous paperwork error landed him in flight school. He was commissioned as a Naval Officer and Aviator in early 1966. By that summer he was back in Vietnam flying his first combat missions. This deployment was disrupted by a devastating ship fire. The following summer, his ship, USS Oriskany, was repaired and returned to the Tonkin Gulf. Both he and his wingman were shot down on the fifth day, and by the end of the week the ship had lost ten aircraft. The harrowing deployment would finish with the highest aircraft loss-rate of the air war. In his memoir, Return to Saigon, he expands on his war experiences and his teenage years in Saigon. Following his nearly seven years in the Navy, he earned a degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, where he met his wife. He spent the next four decades working for newspapers, finishing his career as a publisher in Washington State. He lives on a small hay-farm with his wife. They have two grown children and two grandsons. He is now working on a book about a woman who in 1927 became a pilot and wingwalker with a flying circus. Besides writing, he restores old cars, sailboats and maintains his wife's ancient tractors.

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