Recommended Reading, Military and General Aviation

[smokey799 1]

Evening Everybody,

 

I just finished a book that was one of the best autobiographies of a wartime leader

I've ever read....Bar None.

Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds.

 

Get it, I can't recommend it enough.

 

Later,

 

Smokey

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Stingray::

The Wild Blue: A Novel of the USAF, by Walter J. Boyne

Amazon link

 

That's an interesting book. I read that some years back. Fiction but also "true" story on a certain historical level. If I recall, it nailed the days of Higher, Faster, Further and shiney silver changing to, well you know. The one customer review of the book at Amazon notes that he read it slow cos he knew he'd be sad at the end. A "flight through time" the customer wrote. Great description right there.

 

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Ah Mig, that forum does have some interesting reads. Thanks again. Lots of very old timers there.

 

~> http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum.html

 

 

I think I may be mixing up Air Force bureaucracy with the guys who got crushed by it long ago.

[+EricJ 4,243]

War

 

by Sebastian Junger on the men of the 173rd in the Korengal Valley

[MigBuster 2,884]

F-100 combat units in Vietnam is a coming soon :yes:

 

 

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/F-100-Super-Sabre-Units-of-the-Vietnam-War_9781849084468

[MigBuster 2,884]

A nice read with some detailed tech info

 

[LouG 1]

Here is my list.

 

"Mig Killlers of Yankee Station" by O'Conner gives a debrief of all of the Navy Mig Kills in Vietnam.

 

"Crusader, Last of the Gunfighters' by Adm Gillcrist is a good book about flying the F-8 in and out of combat.

 

"Night Fighters over Korea" by O'Rourke is a good story with many technical parts on flying the F3D.

 

Lastly, the best debrief book with tactics about Vietnam is "Clashes" by Michel. This book is written like a TOPGUN debrief. The who is taken out of it, though if you know your history, you know who the players are in some of the engagements. (Olds, Cunningham, Ritchie)

 

Here are some good links.

 

"The Ault Report" http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org4-25.htm

This report led to better air to air missiles and more importantly, better training through the formation of TOPGUN.

 

"Aces and Aerial Victories" http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-100921-010.pdf

Official Air Force debrief of every USAF MiG Kill in Vietnam.

 

USAF Downloadable books at http://www.afhso.af.mil/booksandpublications/titleindex.asp

[MAKO69 186]

These are some great books

Edited July 2, 2011 by MAKO69

[+Jug 99]

A real nifty recent release: Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs

Everyone thinks Area 51 security was all about keeping the UFO secret when it was really about keeping the USAF Mig fleet (MiG-17s, MiG-21s, and MiG-23s) secret. These aircraft have been flown by select USAF, Marine, and USN pilots in the huge air combat exercises in Nevada called 'Red Flag' since th 1970's. Pilot evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of the MiGs. Like I said, real nifty read.

 

Got to add 'Operation Overflight' by Francis Gary Powers since I'm an old U-2 driver.

Edited September 11, 2011 by Jug

[FeDee 28]

Wings and Warriors by Donald D. Engen

[garyscott 11]

Free PDF download here of "The Preatorian Starship", a book all about the Hercules Combat Talons! Recommended!

 

http://www.au.af.mil.../au/thigpen.pdf

 

(14.12MB total size, if too slow to load on your PC, then right click the link, and save target to location of your choice, like desktop, and open from there)

 

Gary

Edited February 14, 2012 by garyscott

[DelGS 3]

Only one book about WW1 mentioned so far, so I'd like to put in a word for "Winged Victory" by Victor Maslin Yeates,

 

V.M.Yeates

 

TE Lawrence called the book "an imperishable pleasure".

 

An anonymous RAF fighter pilot speaking in 1941 said it was "the only book about flying that is'nt flannel."

 

Yeates flew 248 hrs on Camels with 46 Sqn. on the Western Front, then wrote probably one of the best books ever about flying, and about the Great War in general.

 

Strictly speaking it's a novel and therefore fiction, but as an historical account of life in a frontline RFC squadron, I've yet to read anything better. I think it was fictionalised largely for the sake of the feelings of relatives, families etc....but some characters are clearly identifiable. For example, the squadron's fictional CO, Beal, is very clearly identifiable as Sidney Phillip Smith, who was Yeates' own CO.... until he became Von Richtofen's 76th kill.

 

It may be fiction, but its also as real as it gets.

 

[Atreides 144]

International Air Power review. Great non-fictional(ofcourse) reads. Somewhat on the pricey side but 730 pages for 80 plus USD not bad.

 

Plenty of detailed information and diagrams etc.

 

Website book link for those interested

 

Edited June 23, 2012 by Atreides

[Toryu 156]

Is there any book of an A-4 pilot besides "Rampant Raider"?

 

I liked that one very much.

[+streakeagle 871]

I have a lot of F-4 Phantom books. Many have lots of photos. Some have lots of text as well. Only one other has the kind of photos and detailed info as this one:

DACO Publications "Uncovering the US NAVY Q/F-4B/J/N/S Phantom" by Danny Coremans

http://www.amazon.co...ils_o02_s00_i00

 

The editing could use some work (the book is published in Belgium), but the mistakes are mainly minor typos and grammar mistakes that don't negate the accuracy and usefulness of the information. Many of my F-4 books end being focused on the USAF F-4E or even exclusively centered on USAF variants. This is easily the best book I have on Navy Phantoms for equipment details other than the NATOPs manual. Sweet!

 

When I checked the credits, I found Maarten Waterloo among the text contributors. Maarten is a true F-4 Phanatic, whose website is a treasure to behold as well in case you have never seen it:

http://members.chello.nl/m.waterloo/index.html

Edited October 23, 2012 by streakeagle

[FastCargo 412]

"Phantom Over Vietnam" by John Trotti...A Marine fighter pilot's story of flying and fighting in Vietnam. This is one of those books that not many people know about but after reading it, rave about it. Very personal perspective of the war, reads like he's telling you the stories over a beer at the bar.

 

"To Fly and Fight" by Bud Anderson. Triple Ace in WWII, flew at Edwards during the golden age of flight test, Korea and Vietnam. A life well lived, but a humble guy...unlike some other USAF legends.

 

FC

[macelena 1,070]

http://www.afa.org/mitchell/reports/1204vietnam.pdf

 

I stumbled upon that on google. Looks great, will take a deeper look at it whenever i can

[MigBuster 2,884]

2 recent Additions I have obtained:

 

 

USAF and VNAF A-1 Skyraider Units in Vietnam

 

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/USAF-and-VNAF-A-1-Skyraider-Units-of-the-Vietnam-War_9781780960685

 

 

A-6 Intruder units in Vietnam

 

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/A-6-Intruder-Units-of-the-Vietnam-War_9781849087551

[MigBuster 2,884]

Just out and have got it already

 

 

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/A-10-Thunderbolt-II-Units-of-Operation-Enduring-Freedom-2002-07_9781780963044

 

 

[Fubar512 1,350]

Beachav8r let me know that one of the books I had mentioned at the start of this thread (Rolling Thunder) is available as a free download from Amazon.com, in Kindle format.  You can get a free Kindle reader for your PC or smart phone there, while you're at it.

 

http://www.amazon.com/ROLLING-THUNDER-Wings-Mark-Berent-ebook/dp/B0019LNUVA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384963086&sr=8-1&keywords=rolling+thunder

[Centurion-1 1,228]

Vulcan 607 by Rowland White is not listed here it seems, highly recommended, tells the story of the Vulcan strikes during the Falklands War

 

http://www.amazon.com/Vulcan-607-Rowland-White/dp/0552152293

[Dagger1 7]

hey guys... any one has any thing about the mirage F1 and SAAB Viggen ?

[B52STRATO 215]

hey guys... any one has any thing about the mirage F1 and SAAB Viggen ?

 

Unfortunately many readings on the F1 are in French-only. But there is still this one about her SAAF career.

 

[MAKO69 186]

No Mirage F1 stuff, but these are few more books that are a MUST!

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Okay, I got these two some weeks back, and they are very good.

 

 

BOEING B-50 by Geoffrey Hays  has lots of info I never expected to see in print for this plane, and detailed diagrams, but the text is a weird format, and confusing, although I have not studied it yet so it may be a good way to organize things. Thumps up.

 

 

Black Tuesday Over Namsi: B-29s vs MiGs by Earl McGill is a detailed account of 6 out of 9 B-29s lost in a raid against Namsi airfield, good stuff on heavily armed jet fighters vs heavy piston bombers, which is insightful for thinking of strategic game over The StrikeFighters. Interesting stuff on Soviet setup of ground radar and comms in the mountains. Thumbs up.

The author, McGill, piloted a B-29 missioned for one of the subsequent raids a few days later, but was cancelled when they were getting ready for takeoff...just in time, these guys were scared when news came back of what happened on the Namsi raid. That's when they went over to night missions. Its all here.

---------- ---- -- -

 

btw, Boeing B-50 is not a typical Air Force Legends book. As one reviewer noted elsewhere, the book is larger and more detailed than AFL books, and was probably intended for another publisher. I love the classical 1940~esque script for the title.