Ronald J SutphinThroughout his life, Capt. Ronald J. "Ron" Sutphin's passion was flying. He loved to fly and lived to fly. He spent his life studying flight and teaching countless others to fly. He flew any and every fixed-wing aircraft he could talk himself into, fom the single-engine Cub to the twin-engine C-46 Curtiss Commando to the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. Ron flew STOL aircraft, fighter jets and supersonics, cargo transports and luxury airliners-he was a man for his time.Ron was a Marine first-one of the last to be known as the China Marines, as well as a naval aviator. He went to war as a combat pilot but traveled the world as a commercial pilot. As a combat pilot, he flew several sorties in the Korean War, arriving in Pyeongtaek only one month before the armistice was signed. As a civilian pilot, he flew Rhesus monkeys out of India for the Polio Foundation as well as flying SAR, humanitarian, and CIA covert operations in Indochina with CAT and Air America. He helped perfect the Helio Courier for Brigadier General Harry C. "Heine" Aderholt, the two remaining lifelong friends, each writing their own separate legends in covert aerial operations. He crashed in numerous airplanes only to walk or hobble away and fly again. He was shot down in his aircraft, evading the enemy for weeks, making his way through the treacherous Laotian jungles. From being stalked by a clouded leopard in the jungle to moonlit ops in Helios over the Mekong River, Covert Skies tells the true story of a man who lived for the adventure of flight. Read More Read Less