Customer Reviews

Gabby: A Fighter Pilot's Life (Schiffer Military History)

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If current events leave your head spinning...if you go to bed at night wondering where have all the heros gone and wake-up in the morning still searching, read "Gabby A Fighter Pilot's Life" by Francis Gabreski.

In this age, when everybody has an excuse for every meaningless thing, it is humbling and skin dingling to unfold the tale of Gabby's life through each chapter. Gabreski, a man of simple elegance, scripts a tale of greatness throughout the book. This is greatness earned by actions. From humble beginnings, Gabreski travels the American dream through a never boring progression of character challenging and character building struggles. Gabby tells his story with the humility and directness only a real honest hero can possess.

If you never want to be bored, always want to be inspired and feel good throughout, then this book is a "must read". Gabreski's story will leave you shaking your head, with a tear in your eye and a smile on your face.

"Gabby" is a primer in character development. If it needs to be said, Gabreski makes the point that determination, faith, morals and hard work combine to pay a big dividend. Yet, he is subtle, entertaining and a real "class act". Thank you Gabby.

I read an abridged paperback version of this book many years ago and found it to be both stirring and informative. I particularly enjoyed reading about the more human side of being a fighter pilot. Gabreski, for example, became so excited in his first aerial combat that he didn't even see the German fighter that was in his gun sights even when his flight leader told him to shoot it down. He only saw it much later when they reviewed his gun camera footage. How human can you get?

The smaller paperback excerpted the combat sequences from this autobiography and condensed them into a much smaller more action packed book obviously intended for a broader audience. After reading it, I was anxious to read the whole story; the larger, more comprehensive story of Gabby Gabreski's life. And this book did not disappoint. It tells the story of Gabreski's life from the time of his birth in Oil City, Pennsylvania, through his many actions in both World War II and in Korea, on through the post war years until his final retirement from Grumman Aircraft in 1987.

America has a tendency to forget its heroes all too soon and sadly, except in certain circles, Gabby Gabreski is all but forgotten today. But with 28 aerial victories in World War II, making him America's living "ace-of-aces" for most of his life, and having added another 6 ? MiGs flying jets in Korea, he shouldn't be forgotten. So, if you want to read a good book about a great American and true hero, this is a good place to start.

Francis Gabreski was born to poor immigrants in Oil City Pennsylvania. His father was able to buy a grocery store and Frank helped. After graduation from high school he went to Notre Dame and became interested in flying. Frank signed up to become an aviation cadet with the Army. He learned on various machines and the Link trainer. After graduating the course he was sent to Wheeler Field in Hawaii to fly fighter aircraft (P-36, P-40). At 8AM December 7, 1941 Frank saw the attack on Pearl Harbor. With others they salvaged what they could. He flew a P-36 to defend the base. Some pilots in P-40Bs shot down seven Japanese planes. He was sent to England in 1942 as part of the initial build-up and to learn about fighter tactics. He flew a Spitfire Mark IX which had a high rate of climb and maneuverability with faster speed and high altitude performance. It had a higher power-to-weight ratio than the P-40 (Chapter 4).

Military strategy in the 1930s advanced bombers to the detriment of fighters (Chapter 5). The Battle of Britain showed the need for interceptor fighters like the P-38 and P-47 (p.77). The turbo-supercharger gave high altitude performance to the P-47. There were new tactics (p.87). The P-47s stayed with and protected the bombers (p.103). There is a problem with tracer ammunition and their false trajectory (p.123). Armor-piercing incendiary was best (p.124). Two new improvements for the P-47 was water injection and the paddle-blade propellor (p.139). Gabby had the paint on his plane sanded for smoothness and then waxed (p.140). In July 1944 Gabreski became the top ace with 28 kills (p.166). But on July 20 his P-47 was damaged, he landed and was taken prisoner (Chapter 10).

Chapter 11 tells of his months as a POW until the Russian army arrived (p.199). There was a concentration camp nearby (p.200). Gabby felt proud to help defeat the Germans. In Chapter 12 he tells of his flying in an F-86 in Korea. There were differences with jet airplanes (p.211). Gabby won 6.5 victories in Korea, making him the only flyer to be an ace with both propellor and jet airplanes (Chapter13). They had to be careful to stay south of the Yalu river. A new flying formation proved more productive (p.237). He was later invited to the White House (p.246). The `Epilogue' tells of his later life with aircraft development, and overseas. After his retirement he worked for Grumman on Long Island. He was appointed president of the Long Island Railroad and inspected every inch of the line. A shortage of funds led to hardware problems. The design of the air conditioners eventually resulted in failures (p.261). The last page gives his philosophy.

This is a very readable book, but seems to cover his experiences in a very restrained manner. Surely he must have heard and seen a lot more than is written in this book. You can compare this to Paul Brickhill's "Reach for the Sky" or Larry Forrester's "Fly For Your Life" as more interesting books.

Gabby: A Fighter Pilot's Life is a very entertaining, motivating book.

Other reviewers have summarized Gabby's life well. 1st generation Polish, Oil City PA (had to look that up, it's near Erie or Cleveland OH). He joined the US Army Air Force just before Pearl Harbor, fought with the Polish Air Force pilots who joined the RAF in England. He then transitioned to fly P-47 against the Nazis, becoming an Ace in WW2. In Korea, he flew the F-86 and became an Ace there as well. Somewhere in all of this he found time to get married, have 9 kids and worked his way up the ranks in the Air Force.

This book is much more than the planes he flew - if you're looking for an analysis of which was the best fighter plane, keep looking. There is some of that here, but most of the emphasis is on the people he flew with, his thoughts and experiences rather than the technical aspects of being a pilot. He attributes all of his successes to three simple factors - duty, faith and responsibility. Here was a man who lead from the front, who was always more comfortable with his ground crew or fellow pilots than the brass. A soldier's soldier, he was an old fashioned hero - humble, modest, one who takes all of the blame and shares the credit.

This book is published by Schiffer. That makes it a quality book, high glossy paper hardbound. You may want to borrow it from the library or get a second hand copy. Or you may want to buy it new. Whichever your choice, it's a good read, I was hoping for a bit more opinion on the various planes he flew and fought against.

Gabby grew up a few blocks from where my father grew up in Oil City (Jefferson Street), so this held even more interest for me. It's very well written and replete with wonderful photographs. Read the story of a true American Hero and Polish patriot.

I BOUGHT THIS BOOK FOR MY HUSBAND AND HE QUICKLY DEVOURED IT AND IMMEDIATELY SHARED IT WITH A FRIEND. THE BEST RECOMMENDATION POSSIBLE.

Un très bon bouquin, très facile d'accès même pour les non anglophiles, pas beaucoup de termes techniques ce qui facilité d'autant la compréhension. A l'inverse, j'ai trouvé que cet ouvrage manquait un peu d'anecdote.