Flight of the Intruder

Stephen Coonts flew A-6's in Vietnam. He has the credentials to write this story, which helps explain its long stay on the best seller list.

A-6's were called Intruders. Their pilots tackled assignments of dazzling complexity and flew them with daring and dispatch. But they paid a price...in lost lives, disillusion, incredible tension.

They had one reward -- exhilaration -- worth the whole candle. You share the airmen's special brand of comradery, the one stabilizing force in an otherwis…