If you’re a student of air combat or interested in the Vietnam experience this is a decent tertiary read. The machines and technology are impressive. The bravery of these combat pilots, and those who kept the birds flying - always inspiring. The cultural baggage this writer uncritically presents - antiquated views on women and lgbt people, contempt for those who opposed this war, would-be inspiring speeches on “born free by the grace of god,” - the opposite. The prose is workmanlike show more and the characters mostly feel like composite sketches. In all, it’s a snapshot of an era, filtered in rose at times, an unwitting caricature quite frequently, earnest but flawed.

I want to thank the author and all those who serve or have served. So often service-members are squandered on ill conceived missions, poorly thought out or just plain evil polices, exposed to unspeakable horror, ask to inflict unspeakable horror, and then they are expected to come home and function as normal. We owe them all a debt, even the homophobic, misogynistic ones, and that’s a fact. But we need to remember that homophobia and misogyny aren’t ok just because brave people have held to such attitudes.

I dreamed of being a fighter pilot as a girl, and dreamed of flying planes like the F-105 even though all the century series planes were being retired or made into drones and expended as aerial targets in my youth. I’m glad that today’s girls and young women can grow up to be fighter pilots. That’s one dream that eluded me. Reading books like this helps keep me in touch with it, as does visiting the F-105 Wild Weasel (62-432) we have at a local museum (Evergreen at McMinnville- you should go). I still look up when I hear fighter jets or see them fly out of PDX when I’m racing at Portland International Raceway. I’m sure I always will. show less

Nov 25, 2025