Hundreds of Whidbey Island residents are reading and rereading a bestselling novel that introduced the world to the tribulations and heroics of many men who once lived on the island — and a few who still do.

This year, Oak Harbor Library staff, volunteers and community members chose “Flight of the Intruder” for “Whidbey Reads,” an annual community reading program. They scored a big coup in bringing the author, former Whidbey Island resident Stephen Coonts, to speak at the culminating event April 26.

Although it’s a work of fiction, the book is an important piece of Whidbey Island history. This year is the 20th anniversary of the bestselling novel, which is named after the A-6 Intruders that once flew over Whidbey. Oak Harbor and volunteers at the Navy are hoping to mount an A-6 “plane on a stick” at a display on Highway 20 when Coonts arrives.

Coonts, an A-6 pilot during Vietnam, tells the story of a Navy A-6 pilot who becomes disillusioned with political controls over the war while he and his colleagues run bombing missions over North Vietnam, risking their lives dodging anti-aircraft weaponry.

The book earned high praise from the A-6 community because Coonts used his experiences, as well as real events and real people, to create the action-packed narrative.

“I’ve changed names to protect the guilty,” Coonts joked in a recent phone interview. “They are amalgams of all the people I knew when I was in the service.”

Dave Williams, an A-6 bombardier/navigator, was actually Coonts’ boss in VA-196 for about a year in the early 1970s.

“Little did I know, he was taking notes,” said Williams, who went on to become the commanding officer of the base and later the city harbormaster before retiring in Oak Harbor.

Williams said he was very familiar with many real-life events that inspired fictionalized accounts in the book. He said Coonts captured what it was really like flying in the dark at 500 feet above the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

“We owe him a lot for the work that he did recording for history what that particular war was like for us A-6 guys,” Williams said.

Another well-known Oak Harbor resident, retired Rear Admiral Lyle Bull, didn’t serve with Coonts, but some of his real-life heroics ended up in the book. Bull, an A-6 bombardier/navigator, flew 237 combat missions over three cruises.

Because of his connection to the book, the Oak Harbor library has tapped Bull to give a presentation about his experiences.

Most famously, Bull and his pilot Charles Hunter earned the Navy Cross for a risky nighttime bomb run over Hanoi, which was described at the time as the most heavily defended city in the world.

The men dodged missiles that locked on to his aircraft, at one point maneuvering down to 50 feet above the ground to try to lose one. They flew through skies illuminated by flak and ultimately dropped 18 500-pound bombs on target.

“We got the job done,” he said, “and we were lucky to get through it.”

Bull said Coonts did not exaggerate the danger of flying the all-weather Intruder, which Bull describes as the “workhorse of Vietnam.” The loss of life was almost unbearable for the tight-knit community.

“About a third of my squadron on each of three cruises were lost,” he said. “And that doesn’t include the ones that were shot down and picked up.”

One of Bull’s three pilots over three missions, Michael Bouchard, was shot down and killed the one time he didn’t fly with Bull.

“You never have closer friends that you do when you fly with someone in combat,” he said.

Bull also shares a perspective on the Vietnam War very similar to that of Jake Grafton, the main character in “Flight of the Intruder.” Like Grafton, the outspoken Bull felt that political decision-makers were hamstringing the military. He said warehouses in Hanoi were filled with supplies and armaments, but politicians worried that blowing them up would risk getting the Chinese or Russians into the war.

“We weren’t able to fight the war efficiently,” Bull said.

While the events took place long ago, “Flight of the Intruder” and the Whidbey Reads program will introduce many new readers to the legacy and sacrifice of the A-6 community.

“The A-6 was a difficult and significant part of the history of Oak Harbor,” Williams said.

For Coonts, the Whidbey Reads event is an opportunity to visit old Navy friends and his former home, though it’s a little different than “the little country town” he left in 1975.

He remembers “rattling every window” when he took off in his A-6 over the city. He and his wife raised two of their children at a little house at 900 Avenue East. He loved the summers, but wasn’t so pleased with the gray winters.

“I have a very warm place in my heart for Oak Harbor,” he said.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.