Mark Berent served in the Air Force for more than twenty years, first as an enlisted man and then as an officer. He has logged 4,350 hours of flying time, over 1,000 of them in Combat. During his three Vietnam tours, Berent earned not only the Silver Star but two Distinguished Flying Crosses, over two dozen air medals, the Bronze Star, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Legion of Merit.

Mark Berent is admirably suited to write his five-book Vietnam airwar series for he lived each story. He served four years and one day in Vietnam during the period from November 1965 until August 1973.

As a captain he flew 265 missions in the F-100 in 1966 from Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam. While off duty he flew with FACs in their 0-1 aircraft to better understand the war. He also spent much time with the Special Forces III Corps Mike Force including going on patrol with them in the Loc Ninh area.

His next tour was as a major flying F-4Ds out of Ubon Air Base in Thailand. He flew over 200 missions, first as a flight commander in the Night Owls Squadron then as commander of the famous Wolf FACs. Both units flew over North Vietnam and all of Laos. Berent spent hundreds of hours over the Ho Chi Minh Trail both as a night strike pilot and as a fast FAC controlling strikes against guns and trucks he found on the Trail

As a lieutenant colonel he served from July 1971 to August 1973 first as assistant air attache then as air attache in the US Embassy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. While there, besides flying hundreds of hours in the U-10 and C-47 gathering vital intelligence, he also logged time with the Khmer (Cambodian) Air Force in their T-28, 0-1, UH-1, and AC-47 aircraft. Additionally, he spent much time with the Khmer ground forces teaching them to use air power. In January 1973 when the war was over with Vietnam for US forces, all of the massive air power resources were made available for use in Cambodia until August 15th when the last mission was flown. Due to a fluke in timing, the USAF command post in Saigon was unable to immediately shift full command to its new site in Thailand. During that period, Berent and his team ran the air war in Cambodia from a most unusual place.

When asked why he kept going back, he replied: "A lot of reasons; because it was there, because I wanted a MiG, because when the threat goes up the paperwork goes down and the weinies run for cover, but mostly because the guys were still fighting. Everyday I'd pick up a paper and find another buddy KIA, MIA, or POW. I just couldn't stay on the beach."

Now he writes about these men. He has five books out; Rolling Thunder, Steel Tiger, Phantom Leader, Eagle Station, and Storm Flight. Although historical fiction, the books are about the men and women who gave everything they had in a war they weren't allowed to win. FAC pilots, Phantom crews, Thud, Hun, and Buff crews, gunship pilots and gunners, green berets, grunts, carrier jocks, MAC contract stews, boomers and tankers, from corporals to colonels; the whole nine yards about the day-to-day heroism and the heroes we all know and loved...and some we hated. By way of contrast, LBJ in the Oval Office and McNamara in the Pentagon E Ring are included and the words they spoke as they picked strike targets over lunch are included in great detail, yes indeed. As are those of Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden. His books have won critical acclaim from Chuck Yeager, Dale Brown, WEB Griffin, Steve Koontz, and numerous newspaper and magazine critics.

Berent now resides in Arizona and rides in Montana roundups. He is a frequent guest speaker at Oshkosh, F-16 graduation banquets, and corporate functions.

- From www.markberent.com

Climb, CLIMB, Toby yelled, and pushed forward again on the throttles.... He heard tinks and thuds as slugs tore into the skin and frame of his airplane.

"Phantom Leader, this is Zero Three, go. You want a MiG, get on over here."

A crashing jet fighter breaks up in different ways, depending on its speed, its angle of impact, and the topography of the ground it strikes... usually they burn.

He would kill the American. Secure in the cockpit of his MiG-21 jet fighter, Lt. Colonel Vladimir N. Chernov of the Soviet Air Force stalked the lone F-4 Phantom 6,000 feet below.