Now Showing on Public Television Stations Across The Country

  This documentary  reveals the largely unknown story of a remarkable squadron of U.S. Air  Force pilots who volunteered for top-secret  missions--amomg the most innovative and high-risk air missions of the War:   With uniquely  human aptitudes and skills applied to  decades-old military procedures, these young Forward Air Controllers (FACs) flew fast-and-low over hundreds of camouflaged--yet often lethal cannon installations of Communist-supplied anti-aircraft artillery sites;  this was an on-going occurrence in the Mistys' daily effort to  locate the enemy's supply transports moving southward through the  network of footpaths and trails known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail…to stop or  slow the North Vietnamese Army's invasion of  Saigon, South Vietnam. 

Misty's equally risky mission was to locate downed aircrew members in  North Vietnam  and Laos and act as on-scene commanders until rescue forces arrived

The combat  mission's official name was Operation Commando Sabre because of its bold deployment of supersonic jet aircraft.  Soon, however, this Air Force unit  became better-known only by its radio call-sign, "Misty." 

The film  documentary’s content is presented  through first-person accounts from Misty veterans, and does not center on any individual deed or point-of-view.  Each ‘generation’ that came into Commando Sabre between 1967 and 1970 worked together as a team and, as such, their combined testimonies will offer today's  viewers a humanistic view of a controversial conflict that's been riddled with public animosity and debate for over half-a-century.  

The film's essential goal is to bring to contemporary audiences a renewed awareness and appreciation  about the contributions and sacrifices the Misty pilots gave to their country and to their place in American aviation history.

 As North Vietnamese air defenses strengthened, greater casualties to  American aircraft followed, steadily diminishing U.S. air effectiveness  in the skies over Vietnam.  It became imperative for Air Force  strategists to implement a new method of air-reconnaissance and  search-and-rescue efforts over the country’s heavily-defended landscape.

 Despite their triumphs at finding, identifying and directing strikes on  targets where other methods had failed, the Mistys’ successes came at a  high price:  The unit suffered the second highest loss-rate of the  War—with 23% of their airmen shot down, captured or imprisoned, and/or  ultimately declared missing or killed in action. 

 Yet the innovative tactics developed by the Mistys for their visual  reconnaissance, strike control, and search-and-rescue missions formed  the foundation for FAC operations later employed during Iraq and  Afghanistan conflicts--and remain valid today.