Aviation Books?Novels

[illinijoe05]

Th Pentagons New Map

I am currently reading "The Pentagons New Map" By Thomas P. Barnett.
This guy was a former CIA analyst who helped develope the "Forward..from the sea..." deal, adn also developed Bushes mid east strategy Ie domino effect that is occurung right now. It can be kind of boring at times and is kinda long but is really a worthwhile read for all you military types.

 

[GVSURob]

Kinda funny... the reason I came back to this site was to post about a book I'm currently reading. "Flags of our Fathers" by James Bradley with Ron Powers is EXCELLENT... although its about the infantrymen in the famed flag raising picture taken on Iwo Jima, not flying.

However...

The best aviation book I've read to date is "Flyboys" by James Bradley. Definately check it out if you can. The first 50 chapters are kind of boring, but once the ball starts rolling it's one of the best and fastest reads money can buy.

Just my two cents.

Later!
Rob

"Eye of the Viper" by Peter Aleshire isn't bad either. Cheers!

 

[SteveG75]

"On Yankee Station" - Barrett Tillman , good intro to Naval Air in Vietnam, easy read

"Punk's War", "Punk's Wing", "Punk's Fight" - Ward Carroll, bit over the top but good insight into the JO culture (author is a former RIO)

"The First and the Last" - Adolf Galland, good insight into the Luftwaffe in WW2

"Angels of Attack" - Pete Hunt, I'll second this one. He was one of my RAG instructors in VA-128.

"The Blond Knight of Germany" - Tolland? (I'll check when I get home), biography of Erich Hartmann, 352 kills on the Eastern Front and 10 years in a Soviet POW camp.


As an aside, I was at Whidbey when Osbourne went TAD to Hainan Island. When the crew walked off the stage halfway during their welcome home parade (in front of a bunch of high school kids), it confirmed my opinion that they were a bunch of jerks. The amount of classified stuff we lost was incredible. They should not have opened the plane up until the Chinese put some rounds through it.

 

[KBayDog]

The best aviation book I've read to date is "Flyboys" by James Bradley. Definately check it out if you can. The first 50 chapters are kind of boring, but once the ball starts rolling it's one of the best and fastest reads money can buy.

Amen. I have a very strong stomach, but I nearly lost it a few times when I read about some of the ways our POWs were treated. And the Left thinks the guys in Gitmo have it rough...

I was impressed by the amount of research Bradley put into his work.

 

[UncleFester]

Not to turn this into an anti-Osborne rant thread, but my wife had him as an instructor at VT-10 and said he was very impressed with himself and believed his feces were not odiferous. Good on him for saving the plane, and I don't want to monday-morning quarterback, but landing your plane in the country you were spying on? He gets a below for headwork.
Books: any of Gerry Carrol's Vietnam trilogy (North SAR, Ghostrider One, Nowhere to Hide). Hard to find, but funny and some of the best books ever about the "Old Navy".
Likewise "Flight of the Intruder". Skip the rest of Steven Coonts' books.

 

[petescheu]

To try and name a few that haven't been named yet, all solid...

Aviation...
Fighter Boys: The Battle of Britain, 1940 by Patrick Bishop
Stuka Pilot by Hans Ulrich Rudel
The Wild Blue by Stephen E Ambrose

Mil History (WWII)...
The Longest Winter by Alex Kershaw (European Theatre, excellent book)
Honor Untarnished by Gen Donald V Bennett (European Theatre)
Combat Jump by Ed Buggero (Sicilian Campaign, excellent book)
Given Up For Dead by Bill Sloan (Wake Island)
The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw (Normandy)
The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor (you want to read about some messed up stuff on the Eastern Front...)
The Freedom Line by Peter Eisner (French Underground)
An Army At Dawn by Rick Atkinson (Africa)

Vietnam-
They Marched Into Sunlight by David Maraniss (pulitzer prize winner)

Iraq-
In The Company of Soldiers by Rick Atkinson
The Fall of Bahgdad by John Lee Anderson

Just a few, that should keep you busy for a couple months...

 

[bunk22]

"helo pukes - were placed here on earth to support the fighter pilots."
"helo pilots were where they were because of an innate difference in quality."
"possibility that a top student - a winner-might actually choose helicopters, but in a way that was even more damning. It meant he had no balls. Can you imagine...some turkey getting helos....because that's what he actually wanted?"

yeah i knew the book was going downhill after that. i know the book is about jets but these statements are just stupid. Airwarriors on the other hand (even though it also focused on jets) was straight and arrow. i hope Gandt one day gets a punch in the face...from a helo pilot.

Was the author of this book a jet puke or a wannabe? Sounds like penis envy to me. Like I told my fellow female aviators who tended to only date jet or SEAL types, I understood why. Daddy didn't want them to get hurt by the large manhood of the prop and helo guys so they had to settle for the big ego, small weiner types

 

[Taildragger]

Here are some great aviation books that I have read and am currently reading:
"Hornets Over Kuwait" - a book written by a retired Marine Hornet driver talking about his combat experiences in the first Gulf War -- excellent book and his commentary is priceless.
"True Faith and Allegiance - Journals of a Naval Officer, Three Decades of the Cold War" - an autobiography written by Admiral Peter Booth, a fighter pilot and career Naval officer who flew F3H Demons, F-4 Phantoms in combat over Vietnam, and went on to drive carriers and work in the Pentagon. He gives great accounts of the "kick the tires, light the fires, brief on guard" glory days of Naval Aviation in the late 50's and early 60's, awesome book

 

[handjive]

Raid on the Sun

I really liked Raid on the Sun, by Rodger Claire. It's about the Israeli pilots who bombed the Osiraq nuke plant in Iraq (and all that went into the mission).

I listened to the audio book on the drive down to advanced. It really gets you into the action. It is amazing all that had to fall into place for the mission to happen, and the amazing skill of the pilots that flew the sortie.

 

[theblakeness]

another great book, not totally aviation based is 'In the Company Of Heroes' by Mike Durant. its his personal account of what happened to him during and after he was shot down in Somalia. Quick read too, only takes about a week or two to get through. also, 'bogeys and bandits' by Gandt ( I think ) details a class of RAG students as they go through the Legacy RAG in the Mid 90's. its pretty accurate too and is a decent representation of what the RAG is like.

I got 'In the Company of Heros' for xmas but havnt gotten the chance to open it up. I have really been looking forward to it though because I thought BHD was an excellent read.

@Rare,
Wasnt Gandt a former Pointy Nose?

I loved AirWarriors but I really wished that it could have followed other communitys as well.

 

[zab1001]

I loved AirWarriors but I really wished that it could have followed other communitys as well.

agree with you 100%, but that just doesn't sell books...too bad

 

[rare21]

yeah, Gandt was a former Navy A-4 driver i believe

 

[theblakeness]

agree with you 100%, but that just doesn't sell books...too bad

Probably would have cost his publisher, as well as probably the Navy, much more then they were really willing to spend as well.

 

[UncleFester]

What the hell is going on with guys getting shot down and writing books? Osborne, O'Grady, Durant, etc. What happened for the days when you wrote a book about shooting other people down?

 

[theblakeness]

we still shoot people down??