American Warrior Radio

Red Burning Sky is the latest work by Air National Guard Veteran Thomas Young. The novel was inspired by the real mission that is considered by many to be the greatest airborne rescue in history. Operation Halyard took place from August to late December 1944.  Halyard successfully rescued 432 US aircrews and 80 allied troops from behind enemy lines. Thomas had over 5,000 hours as a flight engineer in C-130 and C-5 aircraft. During his career he deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and the Horn of Africa. He is currently a commercial airline pilot. As part of the strategic war effort, the allies conducted bombing raids designed to shut down Germany’s oil production. Many of these refineries were located in Romania.  From October of 1943 to October of 1944 the 15th Air Force conducted 20,000 bombing sorties out of Italy. The cost was high, losing over 50% of their aircraft. However, they only lost 10% of their aircrews, many bailing out over the Serbian regions of Yugoslavia. Thomas describes the lo