Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hampton (Viper Pilot), a former U.S. Air Force pilot, offers an incongruous mixture of an in-the-cockpit air combat chronicle entwined with a detailed and opinionated analysis of the Vietnam War. The air-combat sections zero in on pilots who flew the U.S. aircraft known as Wild Weasels. These were most often F-105 and F-100 jet fighter bombers with new, secret electronic countermeasure equipment that detected, suppressed, and destroyed North Vietnamese missile and anti-aircraft sites. In these sections, Hampton uses the words of surviving Wild Weasel aviators to imaginatively recreate dramatic and dangerous missions over enemy territory. He focuses on the use of American air power in extensive but stuffy sections on the war's history, offering his opinions on the war's origins and the policymaking of presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Hampton places the blame for the war's outcome on both civilian political leaders and the top military leadership, especially Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and Gen. William Westmoreland. The "most significant strategic error," he says, was "neither recognizing nor admitting that the conflict was a civil war." Hampton's aviator action reconstructions are gripping, but their effectiveness is diminished by the drier sections of military history. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
By the time of the Vietnam War, counter-measures to aerial warfare had become considerably more sophisticated owing to improved radar systems and more effective surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). This was tragically apparent on July 24, 1965, when a U.S. Air Force F-4 was shot down by the North Vietnamese Army with a Soviet-made SAM. In response, the Air Force developed the Wild Weasels program. Each Wild Weasel fighter jet contained a pilot and an Electronic Warfare Officer, and relied on experimental equipment and tactics. Aiming to provoke enemy radar in order to precisely locate and destroy SAM nests, their missions proved to be the most dangerous of the war as many Weasels were killed or captured. Hampton (The Viper Pilot) uses first-hand accounts from surviving Wild Weasels to tell their stories, including intense narratives from Operation Rolling Thunder and Operation Linebacker. The author also provides insight into the fateful political decisions that prolonged the Vietnam War, making it clear that it took an exceptional person to be a Wild Weasel. VERDICT Hampton uses a lot of military terminology, some of which might be difficult for the lay reader to understand, but his overall writing style is excellent; in particular, his vivid, fast-paced combat narratives. His latest work will appeal to military history fans or anyone looking for an absorbing read.-Dave Pugl, Ela Area Pub. Lib., Lake Zurich, IL © Copyright 2015. 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 Kirkus Book Review
Weapon wizardry and exciting, in-the-moment pilots' accounts comprise this homage to the group of first trackers of the pesky surface-to-air missiles during the Vietnam War. Former Air Force lieutenant colonel and bestselling author Hampton (Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, from the Red Baron to the F-16, 2014, etc.) fashions the book as a kind of tribute to the lost pilots. Of the 72 "Hunter Killers" shot down during the Vietnam War, 31 were killed in action, 19 were POWs, two died in captivity, and 20 were rescued. Soviet specialists aided the North Koreans in developing the SAMs necessary to knock down American fighters, as was disastrously proved in July 1965 when USAF F-4 Phantoms were successfully targeted, to the Americans' utter surprise. Although American tactical aviation was supreme, not much had changed in military mentality since the Korean War until the advent of the anti-aircraft missiles. With President Lyndon Johnson's long-sustained bombing campaign Operation Rolling Thunder unleashed in March 1965, the pilots, flying low in altitudes without specific intelligence or specialized technology, became increasingly vulnerable to SAMs, the launch sites of which were frequently moved and expertly camouflaged. The key to a countermeasure would be radar detection: developing an antenna for the bottom of the jets tuned in to the SAMs' specific signal. The California-based Applied Technology, Inc. was employed to come up with the answer in a stunning 30 days in August 1965. Without training, the pilots were supposed to "just make it work," as successfully validated by pilots Jack Donovan and Allen Lamb, who knocked out the first SAM in November. Hampton's command of the nuances of technology, in addition to his knowledge of the Vietnam War on the ground and in the air, renders this book both informative and moving. A fast-paced Vietnam War story that cheekily employs the pilots' vernacular as well as plenty of technological terminology. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
