As the other reviewers have stated, it is an insightful book depicting the day-to-day existence of civilians suddenly thrust into the role of unlikely heroes and now called Sailors. That makes it unique from other military type books. Fahey enlisted in 1942 as did most of his shipmates aboard the USS Montpelier, not 1945 as the book news editorial review mis-stated. Secondly, the USS Montpelier was a Light Cruiser, not a Heavy Cruiser as one reviewer indicated. It was capable of traveling at speeds in excess of 30 knots which is why it served as the Admiral's flagship. Light Cruisers had nearly the fire power of Heavy Cruiser and nearly the speed of a destroyer which made it a highly versatile ship. It is likely that no other ship anywhere in Naval history has ever been in as much "action" as the Montpelier. Some called it the luckiest ship in the US Navy. If Fahey and his mates had not survived, this book would not exist and I would never have been born. In an ironic note, USS Montpelier was sold to the Japanese as scrap steel many years after the war. Currently there still is a USS Montpelier in the US Navy. The new vessel, which proudly bears this name, is a submarine.

This is a fascinating book. Written by a young man who joined the navy in 1942 and served through 1945 out in the Pacific aboard the light cruiser "Montpielier" Fahey is neither a career sailor, or a writer. But he accomplishes an amazing thing; that is transporting the reader to the author's time and place, and making you feel as if you are there, day by day. It's delightfully simple and fresh.

For anyone who is interested in WW2 naval history, this is a highly recommended companion to all the more formal works concerned with the great events and famous people involved. It really rounds out your perspective of what it was really like.

It also makes you appreciate the sacrifices made by this generation of Americans who left the safety of home to fight against evil in far away places.

This book realy tells it how it was for sailors of the U.S. Navy during WWII in the Pacific theatre. Fahey kept a diary of his daily experiences on board a heavy cruiser. All the little mundane details of life are revealed, which is what distinguishes this book from the "formal" history books. No student of history should miss this book.

As an African American, what can be better than to read this a- bout another African American. Oh, what energy and testimony of a man to be involved with so many during a time of the prevalent "Jim Crow" era. It is a joy to take a seat in a comfortable chair and take an adventure with William J. Powell as he sat in various cockpits. He was on fire to see that cognitively, fi- nancially, and physically, men and women could fall in love with "flying". He was humble and aggressive. He felt as a human should feel. Emotion erupted with his diligence to take flight lessons, receive a license, and to even purchase an aircraft of his lifetime. This can bring a method of some closure to other African Americans that yearn for the lines that are missing in most published History books. It is 2001. It's not too late to read this published work to catch up!

This is an engrossing story of a young fighter pilot's experiences flying P-40s and P-51s in mid to late World War Two with the 75th Fighter Squadron in China. Donald Lopez writes excellent flying sequences and conveys the essence of the people he flew and fought with. A good read if you have any interest in military history or aviation.

Haven't read a pilot's memoirs for quite a while, although doing much more of it now. Into the Teeth of the Tiger was the first of a long line of new purchases that I need to read and it was well worth the purchase. Mr Lopez, while an excellent flier and leader, is also a wonderful writer. He writes with modesty and is not afraid to describe his errors in addition to his successes. The action sequences are superb and the humour used by the pilots and crews to lighten things up a bit is guaranteed to generate a smile and even a chuckle. Of course, this is war and the deaths of friends and the treatment of the civilian population was no doubt shattering for all involved. I get the impression that this book has become somewhat of a classic and justly so. It is a well-written account of a less publicised theatre of the war by a (then) very young pilot. What these guys did at 20-25 really puts things into perspective. A bloody good read!

Don Lopez was a 23-year-old fighter pilot in the 14th Air Force Flying Tigers, flying a war-weary P-40 against the Japanese army air force in such close combat that he once took a wing off a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa ("Oscar"). Good pilots are easy to find, and so are good writers, but Don is that exceptional individual: a pilot who can write well and to the heart. This book is a keeper.

There are a number of books on the American Apollo Moon program,
most prominently Andrew Chaikin's excellent A MAN ON THE MOON, and so
the question that David West Reynolds' APOLLO: THE EPIC JOURNEY TO THE
MOON poses is whether another book on the subject really brings
anything to the party.

The answer is YES, in that Reynolds is taking a somewhat different
approach to the subject. Chaikin's book is relatively long and
detailed, but has no illustrations and is fairly nontechnical.
Reynolds' book is substantially shorter, heavily illustrated, and has
a much more technical bent.

All three of these virtues make Reynold's book probably a better bet
for the casual reader, someone who is interested in the Moon flights
but would be perfectly happy with a tidy summing up, focusing in
reasonable detail on the flights themselves but giving a fairly brief
discussion of the background.

Even the more serious reader will find the book's layout and
illustrations outstanding. It's crammed full of pretty pictures and
paintings, ranging from the Chesley Bonestell artwork of the
1950s Colliers / Disney "space program" to fine NASA photography of
the Moon missions. Serious readers may also find the technical
"sidebars" on items such as the "Moon buggy" and unfulfilled advanced
Apollo missions to have some very interesting information in them.

Those who would want to understand the broader scope of the Apollo
program, including its political background, would probably prefer
Chaikin's A MAN ON THE MOON. Reynolds' tends to ignore the politics
behind the Moon program, which in itself could be regarded as a
rational decision to focus on some things and ignore others.

Unfortunately, to get to the most negative comments I can make about
Reynolds' book, the author occasionally does get on a soapbox, doing a
little flag-waving and sometimes playing "eager young space cadet".
A bit of patriotism is fine, of course, but in a few places I felt
as though I was reading the text with someone playing STARS & STRIPES
FOREVER on a kazoo in the background. As far as being a space
cadet goes ... well, yes, I admire the astronauts and believe that
Werner von Braun was a remarkable man in many ways, but the astronauts
were not Boy Scouts, and much more to the point, von Braun was noted
for his arrogance as well as brilliance, and he'd got his hands dirty
working for the Nazis in a way that would never quite come clean.

The soapbox exercises are infrequent and can be ignored. This is
fortunate, because APOLLO: THE EPIC JOURNEY TO THE MOON is otherwise
a creditable piece of work. I give it four stars and not five to
emphasize that not everyone might want to buy this book. Serious
students of the space program might want something more substantial.
However, I think almost anybody would like to page through such a
pretty book, and casual readers should find it both interesting and
informative. I think adolescents would be particularly taken with it.

I did find one small bug in the book: a picture that is supposed to
be of the launch of the first Earth satellite, Sputnik I, is actually
of a Soviet manned space launch, a Vostok or some later capsule.
This is not a killer bug by any means, just listing it as a minor
correction.

I just received an advance copy of "Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon" by David Reynolds (Tehabi Books, San Diego). It's really, by far, one of the most spectacular visual histories of the Apollo program I've ever seen. 272 pp, hundreds of full-color illustrations, including several fold-out pages (such as a four-page fold-out cutaway of the Saturn V), and an authoritative text, the book is a gorgeous package. Unlike most other histories of the program, "Apollo" discusses the lunar landings within the larger social and scientific context. In fact, the first 100 pages are devoted to the events that led up to Apollo, including a beautifully illustrated history of rocketry and space exploration (featuring 6 pages on the Collier's series, with full-color Bonestell art, and the Disney TV space shows). There is a section on the origins and geology of the moon--with great specially-commissioned diagrams--and several pages about the Soviet moon program.

All in all a spectacular volume that I cannot recommend too highly.

The quest to reach the moon was indeed an epic journey involving, as I learned, hundreds of thousands of men and women to make the dream a reality. As a person not previously acquainted with the lengthy cast of characters responsible for taking this idea from drawing board to reality, I nevertheless found this account to be readily accessible and extremely engaging. The author has clearly taken pains to distill volumes of research down to a flowing narrative that reveals insights into the lives of those behind the scenes, as well as the astronauts themselves, who worked tirelessly to achieve their goal of landing a man on the moon. The beautiful illustrations and breathtaking photographs will not be lost on anyone, but do not overlook the useful descriptions of scientific hardware relayed in laymans terms, which are, thankfully, free of scientific lingo that only an engineer could love, or at least understand. I found particularly interesting the final section of the book, which describes planned future missions of the Apollo program that never came to pass. While the public in the 1970s may have lost interest in such missions, the public in the 21st century can only look back with envy. The fascinating explorations that would have been so easy to undertake decades ago, today seem impossible to imagine for decades to come. Thanks to this book, however, the reader can relive for a time the sense of wonder and excitement that surrounded this epic journey. We can only hope that one day we can continue the voyage of discovery where the previous generation left off.

This story is very interesting and gives a lot of insight on the conduct of the air war in the Pacific in WWII. The author, Richard C. Kirkland, was a pilot very early in his life, age 20 or around that age. He is assigned to some very noteworthy units, one the famous Black Sheep Squadron where he was acquainted with Mjajor Richard Bong, the noted ace. He was also fortunate to fly with Lindberg, the Lone Eagle who first flew the Atlantic alone. He flew the P-38 and other aircraft and was a very good pilot apparently. The story is not strictly his however, he tells a couple of tales about pilots that he has heard about who have survived stressful situations. They are all interesting, but they are not his story. After WWII he serves in the newly formed Air Force and he is picked to transition into helicopters and this is a fine story of his exploits as one of the first chopper pilots in Korea and one of the first to airlift casualties from battle in a helicopter. This part of his book is superb. I gave this three stars because his tales of WWII in some instances seem contrived. Maybe it is just that he has waited too long to write this, and he does not remember clearly what he writes about. All in all it is a great read of air combat from first hand experience.

Tales of a War Pilot is about pilot Richard Kirkland who took me to islands near Japan. He flew treacherous rescue missions for the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M.A.S.H.)in North Korea. The book includes stories like "Escape from the Stone Age" where a good friend of LT. Kirkland makes a critical mistake and is forced to bail out and survive alligators, malaria, and cannibals. Another memorable story,"Mystery of the MagnificentBeast," involved a huge Convair B-36 that disappears on Valentines Day with an A-bomb in its bay.

I very much liked the book. It was filled with tragedies and successes that kept me on the edge of my seat. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in airplanes and WW2 or anyone who is an Air Force fanatic like me.

I purchased this book out of curiosity as the author's son is a life long friend and recently told me about it. I first purchased a gift copy, to be sent to my father who served with Dick Kirkland, SR. at Stead AFB in the late 50's & early 60's. It was during this time that Dick Jr. and I became friends. Despite a life long friendship with the author's son I never new of his father's historical adventures until we began discussing this book. I purchased my own copy after my father had read his and highly recommended it. I had no preconceptions when I began reading it, but I must admit I was a bit skeptical about a "first full length effort" at the authors stage of life. I needn't have been. It was an exciting read, very comfortable in it's pace with good character development and surprising content. I throughly enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it to any reader interested in the military during the 40's & 50's or, for that matter, practically anyone who enjoys a good historical tale, spiced up with interesting characters and personal experience!

Military memoirs are kind of a tricky category. The authors usually aren't professional writers, but that's often a bonus rather a drawback. Donald Engen's book is perhaps somewhat of an exception to this rule.

"Wings and Warriors" is well worth reading, but it required a bit of grit to make it through to the end. Engen has a remarkable career as a naval aviator and test pilot, and goes on to become a Captain in the "black shoe" Navy. But his account often threatens to bog down in a welter of detail. Engen includes a lot of facts about a lot of different aircraft, and salutes a great many of his comrades and commanders, but the momentum of the narrative tends to suffer as a result.

I found myself wishing the book had an appendix with a field guide to all the aircraft Engen describes. As Engen notes, there were many different types of jets produced in the early days, and he seems to have flown most of them. But it's hard to keep them straight, especially because Engen refers to them mostly by their original Navy designations, which are somewhat obscure today. (Engen gripes about the Pentagon-imposed "uniform" aircraft designations which eliminated the Navy system in the early 1960s.)

Despite some excess baggage, "Wings and Warriors" has enough great stories along the way to make the trip worthwhile. As a test pilot, Engen relates why it isn't necessarily a good idea to turn off your jet's engine at high altitude just to see what happens. (Hint: the engine also keeps the cabin pressurized.)

Test pilot Engen also flies a series of attempts to set the altitude record. He manages to best the Soviet mark, although not by a wide enough margin to make the record books. But he does a really nice job of relating the experience, and it's pretty clear there's no major disappointment involved.

There are many other gems here as well. Mrs. Engen devises an unusual method to remind her flyboy hubby that he drove off with *both* sets of car keys that morning. The Engens move so frequently that one move is cancelled halfway to make way for the *next* move. Given command of an ammunition ship, black-shoed Captain Engen reveals himself as a world-class scrounger. It's not hard to understand why a crew would be intensely loyal to a skipper like that.

I did find one minor factual error: during his carrier qualification, Engen refers to Point Oboe as the "large mausoleum" on the shores of Lake Michigan. The "mausoleum" is in fact the Bahai House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, not far from the former NAS Glenview. But Engen was there for all of one day over fifty years ago, so I suppose we'll give him a "fair pass" on that one.

After the Navy, Engen went on to become the FAA adminstrator and the curator of the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. As this memoir makes clear, Engen is unusually well-qualified for both jobs.

This Naval Aviator's personal memoir is also an excellent history of Naval Aviation from the battle of the Phillipine Sea to Viet Nam. It was almost voyeuristic - peering not only into the exciting and sometimes mundane activities of his flying career, but also seeing how he and his family adapted to the nomadic life of a career Naval Officer. It was particularly enlightening to read the story behind how some of the great innovations in Naval Aviation came to pass from the author's perspective. His very survival to achieve all that he accomplished in his life alone is a miracle. While some might criticize the inclusion of the names of almost aviator or commander with which he served as detracting from the narrative, for me that was personally satifying as I too served in Naval Aviation and recognized some of those individuals. All in all an enjoyable memoir of a great and not particularly well known American hero.

On the personal level, very satisfying read. I served in one of the author's commands (CAG 11), but before he took over. It was particularly enlightening to read the story behind how some of the great innovations in Naval Aviation came to pass and the human cost. On the down side, the narrative included almost every aviator and commander with whom the author served, which while great for the ego did not help the narrative. All in all an enjoyable memoir of one of our nation's great unsung heroes.

David M. Glantz.

I have read Red Phoenix while impressive in its breadth and scope. The facts contained in it are a hot debate on one World War II newsgroup. This led me to ask one of the most respected historians on the Eastern Front, David Glantz on his opinion. Quite simply he states, Red Phoenix was excellent DURING ITS TIME, but considering the opening of the archives in recent years the information cited by Von Hardesty is "dated" and does not incorporate the new information.

From the purely historical viewpoint, I would not give this book any stars for the simply reason that the information is now obsolete.

Hardesty's Red Phoenix is a triumph of historical research and scholarship on the fascinating subject of Soviet Aviation. Long ignored, and typically derided deliberately in the West, the story of the Soviet Air Forces of the Second World War is examined here with superlative care and understanding. Hardesty draws extensively from Soviet-era sources, carefully discriminating the superior work from the lesser, and in total producing a critically important volume which is surely the first of its type to appear in the English language. Indeed, it is still to this day the most involved and informed work on the subject available genrally in the West, and despite having been published some 17 years ago, requires no major revision to the text in light of the tremendous progress made since that time in the field. The scope of the research involved in this work is indeed formidable (I seem to recall that the bibliography is some 25 pages). But, moreover, to have accomplished such an even-handed and objective volume during the height of the Cold War is quite extraordinary. The prevailing sentiment of the time is quite obviously represented by one of the reviewers of this book; that Hardesty could have crafted Red Phoenix under such social and political duress commands the highest praise and commendation.

This one of the only books I'm aware of in the English langauge that attempts to get beneath Cold War propoganda with respect to Soviet aviation history. Perhaps in conjunction with ever-increasing access to WWII Soviet archives, this book will stimulate scholars to do more work in a topic that has too long been distorted, misunderstood or ignored.

A difficult read due to turgid, repetitive Soviet-style prose. I would reccomend this book only to a historian or a very serious aviation buff. I count myself as one of the latter, and I'm having trouble working up the interest to get more than halfway through this one.

This book gets into the day-to-day operational life of a Russian
P-39 squadron. It's an excellent reference of life outside of the cockpit, and yet still let's you know that the P-39 was more than competitive against Me-109's & FW-190's. The point isn't stated exactly, but the reason they WERE competitive is that combat on the Russian Front was generally below 15,000 ft, and never above 20,000 ft. Remember, neither side was using high-altitude, long-range stategic bombers, it was all low-level tactical aviation.

Still, the book doesn't get into the airplane specifics I would like, i.e. . . how specifically it was better than the 109/190, or even how it compared to their own MiG's, Yak's, LaGG's.

The point is, it's a great book on the operational use of the P-39, and is worth reading.

This book is a relatively well written story of one of the key figures of the golden age of aviation, Roscoe Turner. Through flying in races, movies, record breaking flights and attempting to stay financially aloft, this is a good overview of a life. The only issue I had with this book was that it never truly conveyed the character of Mr. Turner and seemed more like a chronology than a true biography.