Their life expectancy over the course of a 20 year career wasn't "Formula 1 driver in the 50's and 60's bad," but it was not good.
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Linebacker by Karl L. Eschmann which covers the Linebacker I and mostly Linebacker II series of strikes on North Vietnam in 1972. A summary:
SAC: Let's send our B-52's to Hanoi and Haiphong.
7th Air Force: Uh, those areas are packed with SA-2's, SAM's designed to shoot down B-52's. You sure you want to do that?
SAC: These are our bombers. STFU.
Aircrew: Yeah, we have nothing planned today, so dying or becoming a POW sounds good.
If you're on a bit of a Vietnam Air War bent at the moment I'd recommend either of these two books:
Amazon.com: Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam, 1965–1972 (9781591145196): Marshall L. Michell III: Books
That's a very academic bit of prose but very interesting. He makes the point that the war in Vietnam was basically how the air war against the Soviet Union would go, except on a smaller scale. We might not have won if it had all kicked off around that time. Well, if nukes were involved noone would have won.
Amazon.com: The Vietnam Air War: First Person eBook: Ridnouer, Col. Dennis: Kindle Store
This one is a series of stories from the pilots. Needed a bit of editing here and there but nothing major.