GoAround Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 The Hunters by James Salter Fictional account of an F-86 squadron in Korea. Not really a feel good ending, but captures some of the competion and dynamics of a wartime squadron. The first novel by Salter, a Korean war pilot, 1956. He's still writing, though his other novels are not aviation related. Just finished The Hunters as well. It's not a fast-paced book (but it's a quick read...does that make sense?), but it gives a good account of Mig killers during the Korean War. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O Face Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Just finished Hero Found by Bruce Henderson. It is about a Navy A1 pilot in Vietnam who was shot down, captured, escaped, and eventually rescued. It was a quick read, author wasn't a pilot so some of the flying stuff was a little elementary , but the E&E story is incredible. Amazing story of the will to survive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azimuth Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 (edited) Just finished American Sniper by Chris Kyle. SEAL sniper with multiple tours in Iraq, highest confirmed kill count, and longest kill at 2100m. Very interesting reading regarding his experience at the personal level. Apparently Chris Kyle was murdered at a shooting range in Texas today. http://www.theblaze....shooting-lodge/ RIP Edited February 3, 2013 by Azimuth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ol-IEWO Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 New book about the air war over North Vietnam by a F-105 fighter pilot who flew 144 1/2 missions. It's the memoirs of then Capt. Billy Sparks. He flew as a strike pilot and a Wild Weasel pilot. http://www.amazon.com/Takhli-Tales-ebook/dp/B00BIP28YC There's some typos in it but overall it a good insight into the life of a fighter pilot during the war along with some comments about the leadership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
contraildash Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 The Bear Went Over The Mountain and The Other Side of the Mountain Cheers! M2 Just finished both of those. Very interesting books, what do you think of em? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackline Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 American Sniper Cheers! M2 I'll save you the trouble on that one. Don't care how bad A he is. His book is full of, "I'm awesome" talk that make you never care to read another book about a single SOF guy again, unless it's written about a team, from a more realistic perspective. Just my $.02. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocialD Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 I'll save you the trouble on that one. Don't care how bad A he is. His book is full of, "I'm awesome" talk that make you never care to read another book about a single SOF guy again, unless it's written about a team, from a more realistic perspective. Just my $.02. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Ever read The Yellow Green Beret series? Pretty funny books, and easy reads, from a fairly humble A team officer. He actually touches on exactly what you're talking about. Highly recommend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M2 Posted March 26, 2013 Author Share Posted March 26, 2013 Just finished both of those. Very interesting books, what do you think of em? I read 'em years ago for some insight into the forces involved in that conflict, now I'm just re-engaging 'em for my own entertainment. From what I remember, they are more of a collection of battle reports than a comprehensive study of the tactics employed; but now that we are winding up operations there it will be interesting to see what similarities exist between what the Soviets did and ours efforts. I'll save you the trouble on that one. Don't care how bad A he is. His book is full of, "I'm awesome" talk that make you never care to read another book about a single SOF guy again, unless it's written about a team, from a more realistic perspective. Just my $.02. I'm just starting it but I can already see what you mean. I was hoping his chest-thumping would wear off after the beginning but it is typical SEAL (Marcinko was the same way). No Easy Day was the exception, and if you're interested in an excellent series of books from a SOF guy, I highly recommend Yellow Green Beret! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brickhistory Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815 by Nathan Miller. Tough sumb1tches to sail and fight in those things. Not to mention the same careerism and incompetence issues then as today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 Gunship Ace: The Wars of Neal Ellis Good read from his days fighting in Angola with the South African AF to merc work primarily in Sierra Leone to Afghanistan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KState_Poke22 Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 I'll save you the trouble on that one. Don't care how bad A he is. His book is full of, "I'm awesome" talk that make you never care to read another book about a single SOF guy again, unless it's written about a team, from a more realistic perspective. Just my $.02. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD I disagree. He said multiple times that he mostly lucky that he got so many kills. He said that he was just in the right place at the right time for many of them and that any other SEAL in his place would have had just as many kills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackline Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 I disagree. He said multiple times that he mostly lucky that he got so many kills. He said that he was just in the right place at the right time for many of them and that any other SEAL in his place would have had just as many kills. You're right. He did say that in between every other sentence that was devoted to how awesome he is... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afnav Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 15 Minutes: General Curtis LeMay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation by L. Douglas Keeney Aside from a few typos ("Dossier City") and incorrect usage of technical terms ("radar synchronization"), it's not a bad book. The big items I took from it are how badly things went wrong with the Castle Bravo test that was supposed to be 4-6 MT and ran away to over 15 MT. A lot of guys died of cancer that the government tried to explain away. A lot of previously classified information is coming up on its 'declassify' dates, otherwise this book would have been a lot of conjecture. It's a good look at the nuclear era from Hiroshima to 1968, and a good primer for the first twenty years of SAC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JarheadBoom Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Outlaw Platoon by Sean Parnell The story of an 10th Mountain Division infantry platoon and their 2006-07 Afghanistan deployment, written by their platoon leader. Excellent read. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
contraildash Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Outlaw Platoon Excellent read. I second that. Just finished Mavericks of the Sky about the start of the USPS air mail service which in turn led into many early innovations for long distance navigation and flying. Lots of guys died in those early days flying the mail. Good read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackline Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Outlaw Platoon by Sean Parnell Third! Great story! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFreddie Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 The Star of Africa: The Story of Hans Marseille, The Rogue Luftwaffe Ace Who Dominated the WWII Skies by Colin Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis. Hans Marseille is probably what all pilots once aspired to be - drinking, whoring, flying machine! Who else could tell Mousolini he was an ignorant fool or play banned music for Hitler, Goering and Himler? He shot down an aircraft after his engine seized then deadsticked the aircraft back to his base. Over the course of 3 sorties in a single day he downed 17 Allied aircraft. He's a very interesting look at the Luftwaffe in WWII. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brickhistory Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Outlaw Platoon by Sean Parnell The story of an 10th Mountain Division infantry platoon and their 2006-07 Afghanistan deployment, written by their platoon leader. Excellent read. Picked this up yesterday from the library (for you young folks, that's the big building with paper books inside). OUT-fcukin'-STANDING! Great writing, great descriptions of small unit combat, new leader self-questioning while trying not to show it to the guys, FOBBIT queep, and the futility of erstwhile allies like Pakistan sheltering Taliban and Co. to R&R (using our aid money to Pakistan to buy medicine for wounds received before) returning to the fight against us. Stayed up last night reading this in one go. It is that good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKopack Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 I recently went completely in a different direction from what I normally read and finished "Free French Invasion: The St. Pierre and Miquelon Affaire of 1941" - a pretty enlightening book that I think says a lot about US and French relations right to this day. St. Pierre and Miquelon are tiny French islands, just off of Newfoundland, Canada, and as French territory they fell under the Nazi-aligned Vichy government during WWII. Just weeks after Pearl Harbor (24 Dec '41), Free French forces liberated the islands in a bloodless invasion celebrated around the world - except, somewhat surprisingly, within the US government. Our State Department which after being attacked only weeks before, and being at war with both Japan and Germany, maintained relations with and supported the Vichy French government over the Free French (even though Free French vessels were escorting American shipping to the UK across the Atlantic at the same time) - to the extent that the US Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, made a threat to send US Marines and Navy vessels to retake the islands from the "the so-called Free French" to turn them back over to the Nazi-aligned French government if the British or the Canadians would not. It's said that Charles de Gaulle was difficult for the US work with (at very best) but it seems that some of that may have been "self inflicted". Americans to this day talk a lot about the French surrender to the Nazis, but it's apparently forgotten that after it happened, our government - at least initially - backed the wrong side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEVIL Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 Had the pleasure of meeting this guy, 94 year old Navy LCDR who rescued JFK after his dinghy sunk. Super funny, great story teller, and this book was a damn good read. Tells about how poor his family was in the depression then his trips out trying to sink Jap destroyers in a damn wooden boat. http://www.amazon.com/Water-In-My-Veins-President/dp/0557025206 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spur38 Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos "An incredible true story of combat and chivalry in the war torn skies of WWII. A must read! When men were men and a stong illustration of why ALL aviators are brothers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afnav Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 I just received the B-52 Owner's Workshop Manual by Steve Davies, and I'm impressed. It has a lot of photos I haven't seen before, and diagrams that look like they were copied from TOs and the CAST manual. A lot of good memories. It's a must for present and former crewdogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth http://www.amazon.co..._pr_product_top Interesting.....to say the least. Might peek interest of folks fighting the war and interested in some background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torch Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth http://www.amazon.co..._pr_product_top Interesting.....to say the least. Might peek interest of folks fighting the war and interested in some background. your font is incredibly small good sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M2 Posted May 9, 2013 Author Share Posted May 9, 2013 your font is incredibly small good sir. Not any more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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