Low flying moonlit-covert missions over the Mekong in the tiny Helio Courier, airdrops into war-ravaged Vietnam from the C-123 Provider and testing out the “idiot’s loop” from 200 feet at 400 knots in the North American F-100 Super Sabre are just a few of the every-day adventures Ron Sutphin recounts in this memoir spanning nearly three decades. Brig. Gen. Heinie Aderholt, USAF, (Ret.) called Ron “one of the greatest pilots in the history of aviation,” rating him with Jimmie Doolittle, Bob Hoover, and Chuck Yeager.
Sadly, Ron was killed in a plane crash before he finished this fascinating story of his truly legendary life. So, it’s been left to me to make certain his story is told, and in keeping with the spirit of my brother’s high standards, I have not changed much in his book. I edited, to be sure, and finished a few stories, giving the reader some background in the way of research in endnotes and photos, necessarily from the WWII era, the 50s, and 60s. His career was impacted by, and, in a few instances subtly helped impact, several significant touchpoints in our nation’s history.
Covert Skies accounts for only a portion of his long career in aviation, however. From a kid who just wanted to fly, he carved a path for himself, focused like a 20mm cannon on that singular goal, in the end, logging over 35,000 hours of flight. Amazingly, from combat pilot to test-pilot, to commercial aviator responsible for the welfare of many lives, this isn’t a very long story. It’s all too short, in fact, but every bit worth reading the adventures of this quiet, “totally fearless” aviator. Ron Sutphin is the brother I never knew—until now—and a larger-than-life American hero I’ve come to love.
Pilots, veterans, Korean War veterans, Civil Air Transport (CAT), and Air America® families and friends will find this a fascinating read. If you love adventure, flight, and history through a pilot’s eyes, Covert Skies belongs in your bookshelf.
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[CS] Norwood performed a nearly impossible task by writing a book from an unfinished manuscript by a deceased author. The writing, editing, and research were a labor of love because the author was her brother. The task was even more difficult because she hardly knew her brother. She learned about his exploits by reading his manuscript and countless other articles by those who had never met Ronald Sutphin and piecing together events about a place she had never visited. The history of Air America is enigmatic and complex because distortion of facts occurs. There is evidence the U.S. Government purposely obfuscated the true nature of Air America, making it difficult to unravel. I’m not sure anybody will get the complete story correct.
Covert Skies is one man’s experience, but it’s good reading for anyone, even those who were there. I got to Laos in 1969, which was different from what Ron Sutphin encountered in the late fifties and early sixties. Even in 1967, when I was first stationed with Air America in Saigon, you attended ground school for the aircraft you were assigned to fly and then flight training before line training. You didn’t operate one aircraft one day and another the next. I dare say the average pilot wouldn’t remember how to start another plane, let alone fly it. And then fly it in a place with no navigation aids; smoke from the slash and burn farming made flying like you’re in a glass of milk, the weather where clouds touched the ground and enemy shot at you at every turn? That’s not normal flying by any means.
The chapter where Sutphin walked out of the jungle makes this book a good read for that chapter alone. It’s the seat of the pants flying that few have experienced, and most would not survive doing what he did.
Ron Sutphin was not an ordinary Air America pilot. I was one of the few pilots who flew fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, but I never did it simultaneously. I never met the man. He was gone by the time I arrived in Laos. I wish I had met him. I would have liked him.
It’s a good book, and I highly recommend it.  
–Allen Cates, author of Honor Denied: The Truth about Air America and the CIA