Books

Air Force One pilot James U. Cross' job was not finished after he landed and parked Lyndon Baines Johnson's big presidential jet. Indeed, as this engaging memoir reveals, his workday was just beginning, even if he had been airborne for many hours.

Mr. Cross was an Air Force colonel who also served as LBJ's top military assistant. Unlike Air Force One pilots before and after him, he had a White House office and staff duties. When he wasn't being chewed out by the president over some big or small matter, he often was called upon to be a trusted sounding board. And he became close friends with the Johnson family.

Along with piloting Air Force One all over the world on short notice, Mr. Cross' lengthy task list included supervising Camp David, the presidential retreat, as well as the presidential yachts, cars, helicopters and planes. He recruited military officers to be social escorts at White House events. He maintained the funeral plans for all living former presidents. He wrote presidential letters of condolence to families of American service personnel killed in Vietnam. And he managed a secret emergency fund used for everything from stocking underground bomb shelters to drilling a water well at the LBJ Ranch.

His well-written work and its illustrations provide fresh insights into LBJ's temper and personality, as well as the always-risky process of using posh aircraft to help keep up political and diplomatic appearances.

Lyndon Johnson treated Air Force One as his personal taxicab, but he also decided who did or didn't get to ride in any of the White House's transportation assets. Even Vice President Hubert Humphrey had to get LBJ's approval, Mr. Cross notes.

The author retired from the Air Force in 1971 as a brigadier general. He pulls few punches in his text but remains fiercely loyal to the 36th president. Indeed, some readers may wince at his still-raw anger over demonstrations against LBJ's Vietnam War policies. He recalls one incident when protesters gathered near the Texas White House, and LBJ sent him out to collect their petition.

"They thought I would deliver their diatribe to the president. They were wrong," he writes. "I threw it in a trash can as quickly as I could. I didn't want to read their garbage, and I knew the president didn't, either."

That unabashed fury aside, Mr. Cross' book is a fascinating trip through the highest – and lowest – altitudes of the Johnson administration.

Si Dunn reviews books about Texas and the Southwest.

My Wild Ride as

Air Force One Pilot,

White House Aide,

and Personal

Confidant

James U. Cross,

with Denise Gamino

and Gary Rice

(University of

Texas, $26.95)

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