Major Robert V. Thompson, USAF (ret.) joined the Air National Guard and completed flight training in 1957.  According to Don Moore (Sun Herald, May 11, 2003), Major Robert V Thompson “was a 30-year-old captain in the Air National Guard flying an F-84F fighter when the political and the military situation in Germany started heating up. Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev began saber-rattling. President John F. Kennedy held his own against the communist leader.”  Major Thompson, also a commercial aviation pilot, continued to fly for the Air Force until his retirement in 1973.  He is the author of Sabres, Hogs and Thuds: The Diary of a Part Time Cold War Fighter Pilot.  

The MOAA said of Sabres, Hogs and Thuds: The Diary of a Part Time Cold War Fighter Pilot, “Follow Thompson through the various stages of pilot training and transitioning into single seat jet fighters. Fly with him on the very long deployment to France in 1961 in President Kennedy’s response to the Berlin Wall. Feel the pain over fallen comrades and ride with him on his last jet fighter flight at the end of a 17-year career in fighters.

Don Moore, writing for the Sun Herald described Sabres, Hogs and Thuds: The Diary of a Part Time Cold War Fighter Pilot; “The 403-page book tells about his 18-year military career in the guard and his two deployments overseas with the 141st Tactical Fighter Squadron of the New Jersey Air National Guard. His first deployment was in 1961 during the Berlin Wall Crisis when his unit went to France. A few weeks after Thompson and his squadron returned home, they were deployed again for the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.”