Fighter Pilot, Vice Wing Cmdr,
Rick retired from a 27-year career as regular officer in 1996. Nearly 20 years were spent as a fighter pilot flying T-38, F-4 and F-15 aircraft with over 4000 hours flying time.
Squadron Commander, First Fighter Squadron U. S. Air Force F-15C Squadron
Ric later served as chief of NATO's northern region airpower responsible for the bed down and employment of 950 fighter aircraft on 23 bases in three countries. After attending Air War College Colonel Hunter was the vice wing commander at Maxwell-Gunter AFBs, and later the Professor of Aerospace Studies at the University of Kansas.
How to Contact Ric
Website: http://www.firehammernovel.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ric.hunter.10
Twitter: @ric_cvhjr
SS Mayguez Patch
Air Medal For SS Mayaguez Rescue
Captain Hunter distinguished himself while participating in aerial flight as Squadron Aircraft Commander, F-4D, over the gulf of Thailand on 15May75. Flying in BUCKTAIL Flight, brought ordnance to bear on a hostile force which prevented the evacuation by helicopter of two separate groups of U.S. Marines on KohTang Island. Under heavy fire, Captain Hunter through precise on target ordnance enabled the evacuation. His skilled airmanship reflects great credit upon himself and the U. S. Air Force.
Captain Hunter distinguished himself while participating in aerial flight as Squadron Aircraft Commander, F-4D, over the gulf of Thailand on 15May75. Flying in BUCKTAIL Flight, brought ordnance to bear on a hostile force which prevented the evacuation by helicopter of two separate groups of U.S. Marines on KohTang Island. Under heavy fire, Captain Hunter through precise on target ordnance enabled the evacuation. His skilled airmanship reflects great credit upon himself and the U. S. Air Force.
Firehammer
- Author, FIREHAMMER. Pulitzer Prize Entrant,FIREHAMMER is a novel based on a true story about the final battle of the Vietnam War. Written by Ric Hunter, a multiply decorated fighter pilot who participated in this event.Ric Hunter, the author of Firehammer (Red Engine Press, 274 pp., $17.95, paper), is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, a former fighter pilot who flew the F-4 Phantom and F-15C Eagle. He commanded an Eagle squadron and was a three-time Top Gun.
- In the acknowledgements section of this book—“a novel of daring and revenge in the skies over Cambodia”—Hunter says that the men and women of the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron “formed the basis of the characters in Firehammer.”
- Under the title are the words, “Based on a True Story.”The Air Force part of the story begins on January 3, 1975, in Thailand. Captain Randy Houston steps off a C-141 onto the steaming tarmac “into the ripe stench of human dung used as fertilizer.”
Website: http://www.firehammernovel.com/
Twitter: @ric_cvhjr