Daniel Ford

This excellent book by Dan Ford (author of the estimable Incident at Muc Wa) was a fine companion read to Martha Byrd's biography of Claire Lee Chennault, guiding force of the renowned Flying Tigers of World War II. Ford gives incredible detail of the daily experiences of the pilots and crews of the American Volunteer Group in China and augments it with spectacular insights gathered through in-depth research of Japanese records. The magnificent record of the Flying Tigers is thus tempered a show more bit with reality while still remaining remarkable. This is the best overall work on the AVG I have read. show less

This is a short book that neatly balances the hagiographic approach (Coram-The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War) and the intellectual history (Osinga-Science, Strategy, and War). Having read a bunch of Boyd books recently, I'd say that this one is probably the best primer.

However, it doesn't quite live up to the subtitle. Daniel Ford has a fascinating personal background; a Korean War veteran and Vietnam War reporter for the left-leaning The Nation who in his 70s took a Masters in show more War Studies at King's College London with a bunch of British officers. With that, I was hoping for some kind of personal yet synoptic perspective that would apply the theories of John Boyd to the realities of counter-insurgency warfare in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Instead, Ford remains over the surface of the topic, producing a work that is pretty much what you would expect from a basic familiarity with John Boyd and the headlines coming out of the wars. This feels like chapters 1 and 2 of a much better book, and I hope that Ford finds time to finish it. show less

Thank you Bianca Marais for introducing me to this terrific author. I’m ordinarily not a fan of short story collections: some are good, some not so good and some incomprehensible. The stories in this collection are consistently terrific. These stories aren’t pretty as the deal with dysfunctional people dealing with a multitude of life stressors. The common denominator? Coffee. There is a lot of humor in these and I LOLed at the situations these characters put themselves in. Welcome to my show more list of favorite authors Daniel!!!1 show less

During World War II, in the skies over Rangoon, Burma, a handful of American pilots met and bloodied the "Imperial Wild Eagles" of Japan and in turn won immortality as the Flying Tigers. One of America's most famous combat forces, the Tigers were recruited to defend beleaguered China for $600 a month and a bounty of $500 for each Japanese plane they shot down—fantastic money in an era when a Manhattan hotel room cost three dollars a night.
To bring his prize-winning history of the American show more Volunteer Group up to date, Daniel Ford has twice rewritten his original text, drawing on the most recent U.S., British, and Japanese scholarship, along with new information about AVG pilots and crewmen, their Royal Air Force colleagues, and their Japanese opponents.

"Admirable," wrote Chennault biographer Martha Byrd of Ford's original text. "A readable book based on sound sources. Expect some surprises." Flying Tigers won the Aviation/Space Writers Association Award of Excellence in the year of its first publication. show less