{"title":"Francis A Doherty","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"only-the-light-moves-book-francis-a-doherty-9781399057011","title":"Only The Light Moves","description":"A pilot in the US Army, the author flew operations in the Vietnam War in 1974 and 1975. This autobiography explores the occasions during which his aircraft came under fire.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49750187802897,"sku":"NGR9781399057011","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51024381739281,"sku":"NIN9781399057011","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1399057014.jpg?v=1750825053"},{"product_id":"only-the-light-moves-book-francis-a-doherty-9781399057028","title":"Only The Light Moves","description":"Only the Light Moves tells the story of a twenty-four-year-old US Army pilot who volunteered to fly covert S.O.G., or Studies and Observations Group, reconnaissance missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a region that came to represent not only the United States’ war with Vietnam, but also the “secret war” with Laos and Cambodia.  But this is not simply a war story; it is a love story about flying. Captain Francis A. Doherty spent every day for ten months above the jungle battlefield in a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog. The first all-metal fixed-wing aircraft ordered for and by the United States Army following the Army Air Forces' separation from it in 1947, the single-engine Bird Dog was a liaison and observation aircraft. And for this role, it was completely unarmed.  It was from the cockpit of a Bird Dog that Captain Doherty observed this illusive war, perhaps searching out enemy troop movements or calling down waiting F-4 Phantoms to strike a new target. It was a war in which he followed his father’s footsteps in his dream to become a pilot, and where he learned a compassion that extended both to his comrades and the civilians caught in the middle of that terrible war.  In Only the Light Moves Captain Doherty not only reveals the highs and lows of his year at war in Vietnam but expands beyond his time in the conflict. He explores the emotional struggle he and his comrades faced after they returned home, reconciliations with lost faith, and the incredible impact of war on families.  We are also given an insight into Francis’ subsequent journey to becoming a commercial airline pilot. His story makes no effort to glorify the violence that took the lives of so many. There are no broad stroke proclamations about the war, only a very personal, sensitive account of a terrible conflict seen through the eyes of a then young pilot in the air, illuminating the reality and the cost of when one's country decides to go to war.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51692831244561,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51692831637777,"sku":"NGR9781399057028","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1399057022.jpg?v=1769080331"},{"product_id":"when-the-lights-go-out-book-francis-a-doherty-9781036183356","title":"When the Lights Go Out","description":"In this heartfelt essay collection, Vietnam War veteran Francis Doherty reflects on life in the face of mortality. It was at the age of twenty-four-year-old that as a US Army pilot Francis volunteered to fly covert S.O.G., or Studies and Observations Group, reconnaissance missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was from the cockpit of a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog that Captain Doherty observed this illusive war, perhaps searching out enemy troop movements or calling down waiting F-4 Phantoms to strike a new target. As this compilation of snapshots covering his time in Vietnam, his piloting career in the years which followed, and the impact of PTSD on his relationships following his service in the US military, it was a conflict that shaped and defined the rest of Francis' life. Frank writes with incredible vulnerability about the fellow soldiers he witnessed take their final breaths - on the battlefield or decades later, on a hospital bed - the terror of war, and his lifelong mission to connect and cry with the men he fought alongside. Frank is the traditionally masculine army vet, but does not suggest for a moment that he is a war hero. He writes at length about the people whose deaths he feels responsible for, whose faces have haunted him in the years following the war, and increasingly now, as he faces his own final years. Frank's openness about the deep love within his male friendships and the painful discussions on grief and PTSD he shared with these former comrades offer a point of connection for other men who perhaps feel their machismo limits their ability to express emotion or vulnerability. Frank addresses his reader with direct, staccato prose; he is speaking as an officer, not a poet. Yet When the Lights Go Out is as poetic, poignant, and compelling as it is funny and familiar.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53342151147793,"sku":"NGR9781036183356","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781036183356.jpg?v=1774480990"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-francis-a-doherty.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}