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Ebook Air Warriors The Inside Story of the Making of a Navy Pilot Douglas Waller 9781982128210 Books

Product details Paperback 448 pages Publisher Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (June 4, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1982128216

Air Warriors The Inside Story of the Making of a Navy Pilot Douglas Waller 9781982128210 Books Reviews

• I can't say enough good things about this book 'cept short of joining the Navy to try and be admitted into their flight program, this is the closest you are ever going to be inside a fighter jet cockpit.
  Waller's writing style brings depth and personality to naval flight training. A splendid book recounting the trials and tribulations of becoming a naval aviator, not just a fighter pilot. Here, here.
  Semper Fi,
  F.Lee
• I don't know how this book got as good as reviews as it has, except that it came out quite a few years ago and maybe there weren't other books of its kind out there. Read Bogeys and Bandits instead, or Iron Claw. I just skimmed through this book and it was still a chore to read it. The author throws in a new character every chapter, without giving the reader any idea who this person is. There are better books out there.
• Everyone (well almost) wants to be a Navy pilot but boy its a lot of work and brain power
• Wonderful book, you can truly tell that the writer did his homework when it came to creating this novel. It gives details of what it is like to go through the tribulations of becoming a Navy pilot. Would highly recommend to individuals choosing to follow this path!
• Living in the shadow of Naval Station Pensacola and surrounded by the strips of runway used daily in the training process I thank the author for his introduction to the people and the programs that we see and hear only as low flying aircraft.If you have ever had the hair on your arm stand straight up when you watch the Blue Angles perform I recommend you read this book to see how the elite got inside one of these 6 aircraft. May not be a literary masterpiece, but is a pretty well researched report on what I find to be a most entertaining subject.As a result of reading this book I will seek more of the author and more on the subject matter.
• Great book.
• Great book. It is especially nice for those who know of someone about to enter Navy Flight training.
• Talk about your Walter Mittys. Waller has a heck of a deal going here. He has written books about commandoes, submariners and now navy pilots. As a writer for first Newsweek and now Time, it's no wonder he got to fly with the boys and girls in the back seat of F-18s and dive in nuclear subs. OK, so maybe I'm just a teensy-weensy bit jealous. Waller, who wrote The Commandos after observing the training of special forces soldiers, reports on his intimate experience with the training program for navy pilots in this latest book. He was granted permission to participate in the pilots' grueling training regime in order to produce this absorbing behind-the-scenes account of the physical, academic and psychological tests endured by pilot wannabees. It's almost as good as being there as Waller takes us through the grueling "Helo-Dunk" test where students are dumped in a pool in a helicopter body. Because helicopters are top-heavy, they flip immediately when forced to ditch in the ocean, and the navy discovered that if pilots were prepared for the fear and darkness they had a much better survival rate - of course, almost anything was better than the close to zero survivor rate they had had before. Students wear blindfolds and lose points if they try to shove anyone out of the way in their haste to make the exits.
  Grading of all their tests is excruciating. Everything is graded on a curve that is generated against their fellow students to compute the average. "Students were graded not on how well they did, but rather on how well they did compared to other students. The numerical scores a student made on each test were totaled up, divided by 1,000, then plotted on a bell curve against the scores of the past 300 students who took the test. Competition between recruits is thus intense and just one bad day can ruin a recruit's chances. The difference between the trainee who was number one in one of the classes and the trainee who was number fifty in class rank was a mere two points."
  Air combat is vastly different than it was just thirty years ago. Today everything is done at vast distances, and the rule is that if a pilot hasn't eliminated the enemy plane within sixty seconds, he should run away because his odds of survival fall drastically. The systems on an F-18 require the sensitivity of a piano player, and landing on an aircraft carrier at night - read the chapter "Practice Bleeding" for a very realistic account of the fear and skill involved - commands minute movements of the hands and eyes to constantly detect changes in altitude, angle of attack, and speed. For the first landing on a carrier, there is no instructor in the back seat. It's "too nerve-wracking. The instructor would be too tempted to grab the controls and pilot the aircraft himself." It is just too dangerous. The students have to concentrate so hard on what they are doing that many forget their names and plane numbers.
  Despite the dangers, the navy has drastically reduced the number of accidents by emphasizing safety. Hot-rod pilots get thrown out immediately for stupid stunts. Nevertheless, the most extreme strains can come from stress on family relationships when the pilots are gone at sea for long periods. Two of the students Waller followed were married to each other. Both became F-18 pilots, but navy regulations prevented them from being assigned to the same squadron, so they would be lucky to see each other for more than six months every twenty-four. Waller also discusses the changes in the navy after Tailhook. The older sailors hate what they consider the PC mentality while the younger ones seem to have adjusted well, but it has made dating in bars really difficult because of the ban on officer-enlisted personnel fraternization. Unless in uniform, many officers won't go near an on-base, mixed enlisted/officer club for fear of asking out an enlisted woman and risky severe censure.
  This is a really stunning book. Absolutely fascinating.