Customer Reviews

Carrier: A Guided Tour of an Aircraft Carrier

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Clancy's newest non-fiction book continues the tradition of excellence in explaining to the common person a specific aspect of the military, this time a Carrier Battle Group. Clancy not only focuses on the current status of the CVBG's, but also tells the history, and what he believes the future of the CVBG's will be. The book is filled with historical, as well as technical facts about CVBG's, and also discusses many of the future plans for the United States Navy. A must-have book for anyone interested in the past, present, or future of United States Navy Carriers.

This is just a wonderful book on the topic. Clancy and co. have done a great job of taking the reader through the ships in question and really explaining the different types, parts, and jobs associated with an Aircraft Carrier. Clancy also does a good job in explaining what it is like to live and work on one of these ships. He also takes us through some of the training that takes place to get into the job. He also adds a good amount of detail of what the typical types of missions these ships and battle groups have today, what they did in the cold war and the possible missions upcoming.

I was surprised at the number of countries that also have aircraft carriers not to mention the different types the U.S has. Clancy takes us through a long inventory of all the different countries that have aircraft carriers today, what kind of ships they are and what are the strengths and weaknesses of the model. Another interesting part of the book was the description of all the countries currently making the aircraft carriers and how good / bad they are at it. I enjoyed the fact that the catapult technology really only comes the U.S. as no one else has mastered it.

Overall this was an interesting, easy to read and very informative book. If you are interested in aircraft carriers then this should be your first stopping point. A good book well worth the money.

This is a most unusual book in that it goes into excruciating detail about the Navy, the Air Force and carriers. In fact, even though I found it fascinating reading, it's more than most people would want to know unless you're a real fanatic. At times I felt that a foreign power could learn how to duplicate our success by reading this book -- hopefully Clancy left some military secrets a secret!

The most enjoyable parts of the book for me were the descriptions of the pilot training (and the amazing prowess of Navy flyers who have to catch a "string" upon landing so they don't fly right off the deck), life aboard a carrier and the interview with the navy official. The chapters devoted to the layout and structure of the carriers were less interesting from my point of view.

A very detailed approach to carriers and their role in protecting our role in world affairs.

I thought that overall layout of the book was excellent. Just the way that he expertly described everything in detail was amazing. I also like all the graphs and charts and the like.

I am a great fan of Tom Clancy. Over the years I have come to buy his novels without reading the resume or write up, but just by knowing that he wrote it. Of course yet again I wasn't disapointed. The book contains fine detail and information concerning US carriers of today, but also gives us a good view of the past and future designs. If anyone would like to gather and understand the function and works of these massive ships, I couldn't suggest a better book.

For those who like Clancy novels, this non-fiction work will not be a disappointment. Clancy meticulously details every possible facet of a carrier's operation, including the history of aircraft carriers, as well as the planes, bombs, and missiles. After reading this book, you'll want to read Clancy's other non-fiction books on other facets of military hardware.

I've seen lots of movies and television programs which have featured carrier operations (such as VICTORY AT SEA and BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI) and have read books such as Bogeys and Bandits which have described how tricky it can be to land on an aircraft carrier. But Tom Clancy's latest nonfiction work covers the whole gamut of carrier operations, from the evolution of aircraft carriers to the construction of today's aircraft carriers, to the different aircraft, to the personnel--the pilots, catapult officers and flight directors, for example. This book should be read by anyone who is interested in the Navy or in naval aviation. I only wish I had had this book before Operation Desert Fox--it would have been a wonderful reference to keep by my radio and computer as I followed the events from the Persian Gulf theater.

As always, Tom Clancy's research into a subject is beyond reproach. As a veteran of 28 years involved in Naval air (and the son of a Naval officer with the same tenure), it's good to be brought up to date by someone I respect in this arena. Clancy does a great job of getting one through the "An Officer and a Gentleman" Pensacola experience, and into the ready room.

This is one of Clancy's best. Not only is it interesting and fun to read, it is very informative and the information is accurate with a few exceptions. These include the misnaming of certain carriers.

As good as this book is, there are many things I simply didn't like about this book. First of all, the book was very idealistic and was more of a propoganda work rather than some kind of reference book. For example, when Clancy explains the air wing layouts, he claims that a certain air wing with less fighters but more striking ability can hit more targets on land and the older 90 plane air wing's land-attack capability was much more limited. He doesn't know that, does he? He never took into consideration that the carriers during the Cold War never actually fought, so it can't be safely said that such and such an air wing is more capable than the other. He also doesn't consider the amount of threats in the world today when talking about the less ships and planes, the more effective. He even says that the current naval aviation structure is much better and is less complicated, when he doesn't even know how effective the previous standings were and how bad things are getting in the world. Also, when talking about the new carriers, he doesn't consider the complications such a program would make and believes carriers are simple "help the needy" machines when they are actually powerful weapons of war. Nor does he ever mention anything about the serious costs that future programs will take and just goes rambling about how cool things will be and how much better things will get. All this, in a way, insults the Navy, because it shows them as a group that simply just buys expensive stuff and doesn't care about their task at hand.

Another thing that was seriously flawed was the explaination of missions and tactics and the fiction. The missions are well shown, but they are not fully explained. They are also described in a way as being"totally effective," which is not true. it takes more than just a carrier to win a war. The tactics are also shown as being 100% effective, also not true. Finally, as someone from India has stated, the fiction was not only short and screwed up, it totally defaces what India is really like. It shows them as ruthess, evil conquistadors, without ever really considering everything to the story. The news report showing the destruction of the Indian ship was totally unreal and propogandic. No such thing would take place, especially when sensitive information is present and would surely have been censored.

Overall, this book was pretty good, but there were many errors and was very biased, propgandic and based on the authors mind. next time, Clancy should write it like a real reference book, accurate to the last detail, unbiased, realistic, or never write non-fiction again. Maybe he jsut didn't know what he was talking about.

I have read all of Clancy's non-fiction books on the US armed forces and I have to say that this is one of the best. Although he gets a little bit heavy on the abbreviations and just assume that the reader will remember them all(they do stack up to be a bunch in the end).

Clancy's book is not only interesting from a technical and tactical perspective but it also gives the reader a glimpse of how the US conducts its foreign policy at some points.

The scenario in the end of the book is fascinating and it might not be that far away from reality as one of the other reviewers think. Remember it is 15 years in the future and who knows......