Customer Reviews

Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book was a fascinating look at the state of Naval Aviation today. The nay-sayers who claim this book is fiction need to get their facts straight. As a former F/A-18 pilot and Navy jet instructor pilot, I personally flew with four of the students, and also know one of the other students from my time in the Navy. And, for the record, I am 95% sure that one of the male pilots' names was fictional, as I flew with someone who matches the description very well and finished training at the same time as the others. This book correctly conveys the attitudes, fears, and exhilaration of flying the Hornet, as well as the problems with the double standard in today's Navy. A must read for anyone with the slightest interest in flying for the Navy today.

This book takes you on a journey through a fighter jockeys training and life. It follows the line of 8 piolets going through the training system call RAG. It is the FA/18 fighters training program. It is a true, real life story and is a great read for anyone who was,is or want's to be a fighter piolet. It shows the bores of inside the classroom learning, the thrill of one of the piolets first flights and the way it affects the wives and children of the piolets. A great story and great read!

BOGEYS AND BANDITS is the first factual accountof naval TACAIR in the Post-Tailhook "PC Era".Gandt's research is both extensive and accurate. His sources are unimpeachable (contary to what one critic here imagines). The main characters are better than any fiction could produce---because they're real people, real Naval Aviators. Best of all, Gandt does not shy away from the "women in combat" issue, as many would in today's PC-liberal climate. Refreshingly, he engages the issue head-on and up-front. Specifically he reveals some painful truths about preferential treatment in womens' flight training. He takes no position whatsoever---but he reports the facts with brutal honesty. Because of this I predict great whining (and the usual slander) from certain radical feminists, but the fact remains: Bob Gandt has done his homework, and has written a most excellent and enjoyable account of some true American Heroes.

It's got to be every kid's dream - to be one of those gods who fly the fast metal, the hot jets, the fighter planes that command the skies.

And then to go that Top Gun step beyond and be one of the two thousand pilots in the entire world who are qualified to land a jet on an aircraft carrier.

This book tells how it's done, and it's a collection of yarns and descriptions and portraits and moments, some poignant, some routine, some heart-stopping, some heart-pounding that puts the reader through the process.

The author is an old aviator and knows his stuff. He's not fooled. You or I would get a lot of tall stories if we tagged along with a notebook, but Robert Gandt knows what's going on, and he gives us the good guff as he follows a class of "nuggets" learning how to fly, fight, strike, and carrier qualify with the F/A-18 Hornet.

Along the way he looks at some if the issues facing the US Navy. Race, education, sex, safety. And warfighting. This is deadly serious stuff, and these people are the cream of America's crop just to have got to the stage where they are even considered for fighter training.

It's a hell of a lot of fun, to live that little boy dream, but also a hell of a lot of work, and I take my hat off to the aviators Gandt describes. I also took my shoes off and put my feet up for a day while I read the book, and though the world outside was calm and sunny, inside my head the windows were rattling and the floor shaking with the roar of these high performance aircraft flying off the pages of this most excellent book. Strap yourself in before you read it!

The book is a real page-turner no doubt. The author reveals the challenges faced by Naval aviators who are learning to fly the FA-18. The book was written shortly after legislation was passed allowing women to enter combat pilot training; accordingly, the author emphasizes gender tensions within the Naval Aviation community. Gandt states and re-states his position on the social status of fixed-wing versus helicopter pilots. He seems to think that chopper pilots are the scum of the aviation community and are flying choppers because of their general ineptitude. He elevates jet pilots...only FA-18 pilots, mind you, to the status of gods and godesses. Besides this blatant and baseless subjectivity, Gandt does detail the personal experiences of the class of FA-18 trainees with thoroughness.

I loved this book and recommend it as the best in its category of books about Navy pilots. A lot happens to each of the pilots-in-training that are covered. I learned a lot about how pilots are trained and what their day-to-day life is like (very busy!). A lot of the parts were very interesting, such as when the author talks about pilots who quit the Navy after all the expensive and difficult training has been given to them, and about going in front of review boards in danger of losing your wings after a particularly scary performance in the air, or even giving up your wings voluntarily if you grow to fear the "smoking hole in the ground" too much (what you'll end up as if you crash your jet and can't eject safely.) Could easily be made into a great movie.

For all you nay sayers, and well wishers alike you can contact me directly for my review. I can attest the the story is true. I have been attached to VFA-106 for the past 8 years. I was there before Mr. Gandt, while he was there and after he left. In fact I'm still in the squadron training students. If you have any questions I can answer them. Dandelwise@netscape.net

This book really describes what it is like to learn the techniques of landing a high-tech Navy fighter--perhaps the toughest realm of aviation in all of the American armed forces. And Gandt's book describes the grueling ordeal of training, from study through the exasperating ordeal of landing on a carrier at night so perfectly. I am a BIG Tom Clancy fan--I have read most of his fiction and all of his nonfiction--but Gandt beat Clancy hands down with this book! As I write this, the chances of the United States taking military action against Iraq look very strong, and aircraft and pilots such as the ones depicted in this book might be involved. No matter what happens, however, I will be very appreciative of the aircraft, their pilots, and the U.S. Navy because of reading this book.

OK "reader". You make serious allegations to Gandt's lack of research and his own own Navy background yet you choose to remain anonimous. What kind of fighter pilot were you?

As a former Naval Aviator, I can say that Mr. Gandt's book is right on target. His descriptions are vivid and bring back the smell of the aircraft, the sound of the engines and the raw emotion of the human interplay. Because he chose to include gender intergration in this book, there will be those who will be offended. There are those who stand ready to be offended. I did not view this book to be in anyway derogatory to our female Naval Aviators, as have some who have reviewed this book. In fact, I view it as a total acceptance of this present policy of females flying combat aircraft. The females are held to the same high and harsh standards the male Naval Aviators have always been held to. Hey Ladies, welcome aboard. But for those who cannot take the critique along with the guys, you don't deserve to call yourselves Naval Aviators. Fighter Pilots don't whine and they don't associate with those who do. A real Fighter Pilot lets his/her flying speak for it self