Adak: The Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586 - Paperback

by Andrew C. a. Jampoler (Author)

In the tradition of great tales of men against the sea, Adak offers a compelling look at courage and commitment in the face of certain tragedy. Alfa Foxtrot 586 was a P-3 Orion on station on a sensitive Cold War mission off the Kamchatka Peninsula on 26 October 1978. When a propeller malfunction turned into an engine fire, the pilot was forced to ditch his turboprop into the empty, mountainous seas west of the Aleutian Islands. The aircraft went down in just ninety seconds, taking one of the three rafts with it. Thirteen men launched the other rafts, the smallest of which-terribly overcrowded-soon began to leak, threatening the nine men aboard. This account of the flight crew's desperate battle against the sea, and the heroic efforts to rescue them provide an engrossing true story of survival.

Author Biography

Andrew C. A. Jampoler spent nearly twenty-five years as an active-duty naval aviator including a year on the ground in Vietnam, command of a squadron and a naval air station, and service on several high-level staffs. He is the author of six other Naval Institute Press books, beginning with Adak in 2003 and most recently Congo.