Air Warriors: The Inside Story of the Making of a Navy Pilot (ISBN 0684814307)

OUTSTANDING!!!!:
Reading the book the 1st time captivated me. After visiting my friend at NAS Pensacola during his flight training and speaking to actual SNAs and SNFOs, I decided to read the book again... WOW. He is RIGHT ON the mark. This is an absolute MUST read for anyone hoping to pursue Naval Aviation. Probably the most MOTIVATING book i've ever read. BRAVO ZULU Mr. Waller.

OUTSTANDING INSIGHT INTO THE BROWN SHOE NAVY:
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 Detail:
I've been interested in military aviation all my life and this is a book I've been waiting for. For the first time it gives the "nuts and bolts" of aviator training. It's the first time I've read a book that tells the reader in detail about the hurdles one must pass in order to win wings. I never really understood the art and science of military flying and what is expected of a proficient student pilot. While the author has no axe to grind I found one detail he mentions facinating. When new female aviators saw the "scorecard" (my term) for carrier landings kept in a unit's ready room they immediately said that is something that will have to go. Great! By all means we don't want a military with messy competition where someone's feeling might get hurt. We want want one were, like in Lake Woebegone, everybody is better than average and girls are graded on a curve.

397 pages of pure "Gouge":
A MUST read for anyone headed in the direction of Naval Flight School. The author has chosen an interesting style of writing by featuring 30 different people in 17 chapters (plus the Epilogue). It keeps the material fresh and interesting by thowing fresh faces into the mix with each chapter. The material might have bogged down had it followed one group through the whole training process. Additionally, this style of story telling gives you a broad spectrum view point. Needless to say it should be a truer version of reality. I found the last couple of chapters dragging a tad, but it's a minor fault. It matches the point in training as well. The pilots near the end of their training and begin to look out towards earning a living flying for the Navy. Early on the threat of washouts is high. In fact one cadet has his life's future hanging in the ballance, all dependent on if he can do 42 pushups or not. This sort of hair trigger drama is completely missing by the time the pilots get around to night landings on carriers. They can still fail, but they aren't going to be thrown out of the cockpit all together. By that time they're pilots... By the end of the book the drama comes from the sheer danger of what they are doing. I'm not sure who the ideal reader would be. All the basics are covered, so it's not going to leave anyone behind. Similarly a Navy pilot isn't going to be too enthralled here. It's mostly the thrill of seeing inside the process of becoming the pilot of some of the world's highest performance planes. Few of us will actually get to sit in that seat, but we can all enjoy the fantasy of what it would be like. In this regard the book is truely first rate. Highly recomended to anyone headed towards flight school. Here's what they're about to do to you... and ways that you can pass or fail....read the book... d'uh! The one real flaw here is that the story follows the path of the glamor boys, and girls. The ultimate goal here is to fly F/A-18 Hornets. Cadets that get dropped along the way.. such those assigned to Helicopters!!!... are never to be seen again. We have ZERO idea what Helicoter training, or tranporter training, etc. is like. Even Harrier training... zip on that. SO there are blind spots in the coverage, but then people are going to buy the book looking for the glamor jockeys. A more accurate title would have been... Air Warriors ; the Inside Story of the Making of a Navy F/A-18 Hornet Pilot. If that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place!

A poorly written book:
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.