Review by Booklist Review
This solid study of marine aviation in the current Iraq war will interest a wide range of aviation buffs and students of the Marine Corps. The major focus is on the personnel, who emerge as a decidedly professional group, displaying courage and innovation in their daily missions supporting marine ground troops, thoroughly aware of the moral responsibility of avoiding civilian casualties. Stout also provides a more technical set of insights into the marine aircraft. He flew the F/A-18 in the Gulf War and knows the virtues and vices of the improved models now fighting, and he is able as well to offer valuable and rare coverage of the AV-8 VTOL attack jet, used only by the marines among the American air services, and its problems of operation from insecure desert airfields in a hot, dusty country. Attack helicopters and the venerable transports that provide in-theater lift fall within his purview, too. A fine addition to Iraq war literature. --Roland Green Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Former Marine Corps fighter pilot Stout (Hornets Over Kuwait, etc.) offers an in-depth account of the role that Marine aircraft played in the launching of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Stout relies primarily on first-person testimony from dozens of Marines whom he interviewed shortly after they returned from the war. These men flew and crewed in all manner of Marine Corps aircraft: attack helicopters, jet fighters and different types of support and transport planes. Employing a writing style that includes plenty of military acronyms and technological details, Stout focuses on the human element: tales of combat told by the men in the cockpits. He shows that, while the war was a nearly unqualified success, it still contained, as all wars do, mistakes along the chain of command, weather conditions that were unpredictable and, of course, enemy fighters aiming to kill. All of these factors led to American casualties, accounts of which Stout includes. In the main, though, Stout concentrates on successful, often heroic missions that create a solid image of Marine prowess. 16 -pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, E.J. McCarthy. (Dec. 27) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Adult/High School-As a retired Marine aviator, Stout writes with an experienced voice and convincing attention to detail in recounting air combat missions conducted in support of ground troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Introductory chapters set the stage for a riveting chronology based on his first-person interviews with Marines who participated in the surge from Kuwait to Baghdad between March and April 2003. The focus is primarily on the jets and rotary-wing aircraft components whose capabilities delivered firepower to infantry in an incredibly complex battle space, but tributes are also given to mobile teams who constructed essential repair and refueling points along the route, to tanker crews delivering supplies, to specialists providing communications and intelligence support, and to embarked Navy warships. Harrowing descriptions honor the professional skills of helicopter crews who survived being engulfed by swiftly moving, impenetrable desert sandstorms; the prowess of pilots delivering precision ordnance to suppress hostile forces along corridors adjacent to U.S. troops; and the dogged determination of rescue personnel performing under fire in rugged terrain to evacuate wounded Marines. Beyond these dramatic views from the cockpit, the book also contains candid analyses of lessons learned during the aerial campaign, whether related to flaws in tasking, execution, or equipment failure, and there is sensitivity to loss of life for both coalition troops and Iraqis. Sixteen pages of black-and-white photos lend impact to the personal narratives, and the volume's concluding glossary of relevant military acronyms is helpful.-Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by School Library Journal Review
