Thomas F. (hardtack) -
Some of the negative reviews on Amazon for this book lament that a good part of the book is taken up with the political problems Tibet had with other countries. This also includes the tension and power play between local Tibetan officials and the representatives of Britain, India, Nationalist China and even the five American airman. Yet much of this results due to the religious beliefs of the Tibetan people, as well as the corruption of key figures in that religion.
Being who I am, I found it all very interesting, if not occasionally fascinating. Okay, so part of that is I'm a history buff with a political science degree. And I always thought it was Red China which originally infringed on Tibetan territory. But the book shows the Chinese were striving to seize control of Tibet even under the Nationalist Chinese. And what the People's Republic of China and the Communist party did to the Tibetans was heart breaking. I'm old enough to remember when the Dali Lama fled Tibet for sanctuary in India.
Still the authors kept enough in about the five American airmen who parachuted into Tibet from what what might have been an altitude record. And even though I've backpacked the Rockies numerous times at 11,000-12,000 feet, crossing large snowbanks and a small glacier even in July, I cringed when the authors described the sick and malnourished airman traveling in snow storms and crossing 19,000 foot passes in December. If I had been one of them, I think my bones would still be there. The two leaders well deserved the medals the U.S. Army Air Corps awarded them for bringing their crew back alive. The parachute jump itself was an epic. How do you jump out of a plane at night, at 20,000 feet and land on the side of one of the highest mountains in the world and not only survive but make your way down to the bottom. God had their back that night!
Side note: More than once the authors refer to the "Blood Chit" the officer wore on his leather flight jacket. This caused some of the problems the airman encountered, as the Tibetans thought the Chinese flag and writing identified the airmen as Chinese. I'm sitting here looking at a framed "Blood Chit" on the wall which belonged to my father. It help save his life when the B-24 bomber, on which he was a radio operator/gunner, was shot down behind Japanese lines in China on his 36th combat mission. These World War II Blood Chits are rare now and sell for $350-400 on Ebay. When I meet Chinese students and professors who are studying or doing research at a local university, and I meet many of them at a state park I volunteer at, I let them know if it hadn't been for the Chinese guerrillas getting my father and the rest of the crew out, I wouldn't be here now. So I thank them on behalf of me and my mother who married Dad just a month before he was shot down. On another wall is a photograph of the entire crew in Chinese clothing with some of the Chinese officials and guerrillas who rescued them.
For me, this book wasn't just a vague and distant story of something which happened 80 years ago, it was a true-life tale I can relate to.
Being who I am, I found it all very interesting, if not occasionally fascinating. Okay, so part of that is I'm a history buff with a political science degree. And I always thought it was Red China which originally infringed on Tibetan territory. But the book shows the Chinese were striving to seize control of Tibet even under the Nationalist Chinese. And what the People's Republic of China and the Communist party did to the Tibetans was heart breaking. I'm old enough to remember when the Dali Lama fled Tibet for sanctuary in India.
Still the authors kept enough in about the five American airmen who parachuted into Tibet from what what might have been an altitude record. And even though I've backpacked the Rockies numerous times at 11,000-12,000 feet, crossing large snowbanks and a small glacier even in July, I cringed when the authors described the sick and malnourished airman traveling in snow storms and crossing 19,000 foot passes in December. If I had been one of them, I think my bones would still be there. The two leaders well deserved the medals the U.S. Army Air Corps awarded them for bringing their crew back alive. The parachute jump itself was an epic. How do you jump out of a plane at night, at 20,000 feet and land on the side of one of the highest mountains in the world and not only survive but make your way down to the bottom. God had their back that night!
Side note: More than once the authors refer to the "Blood Chit" the officer wore on his leather flight jacket. This caused some of the problems the airman encountered, as the Tibetans thought the Chinese flag and writing identified the airmen as Chinese. I'm sitting here looking at a framed "Blood Chit" on the wall which belonged to my father. It help save his life when the B-24 bomber, on which he was a radio operator/gunner, was shot down behind Japanese lines in China on his 36th combat mission. These World War II Blood Chits are rare now and sell for $350-400 on Ebay. When I meet Chinese students and professors who are studying or doing research at a local university, and I meet many of them at a state park I volunteer at, I let them know if it hadn't been for the Chinese guerrillas getting my father and the rest of the crew out, I wouldn't be here now. So I thank them on behalf of me and my mother who married Dad just a month before he was shot down. On another wall is a photograph of the entire crew in Chinese clothing with some of the Chinese officials and guerrillas who rescued them.
For me, this book wasn't just a vague and distant story of something which happened 80 years ago, it was a true-life tale I can relate to.
