Customer Reviews

Humble in Victory

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This is one of those reviews that I suspect will not get posted on a book. This is a self-published book with the usual flaws, typographic errors, poor print quality, font with low readability, all of which detracts from the reading experience. The copyright date is 2000, so I presume it was not written too long before that, but it shows an attitude from the 70's rather than the 90's. It has the premise, proved false in the Navy of 2000 when published, that *EVERYONE* has nothing but sex on their mind and that everyone screws around. It has the females on the crew constantly getting pregnant and some political correctness gone wild where they can turn in a "stress chit" and be relieved of duty wihtout repurcussion. Had this been written in 1975 when people were still speculating what would happen if women were equally in combat, it might be understandable. But for someone writing from the perspective of the 90's, it is quite simply sexist. All the fears expressed in the 70's about women sharing bathrooms and being made roommates with men was well de-bunked by the 90's and has no place in this story. Since it references Desert Storm, I have to think the author was actually writing it in the 90's, but his attitude is pure 70's. The story gets even more contrived having China unilaterally choose to stop paying off US officials to get their trade goals met, and even joining the US in a risky attack plan. It gets even more silly when a Chinese fighter pilot, who stays in China in their military, marries an American fighter NSO who stays in the USA, like that is going to happen. Contrived, shows extreme sexist attitude and otherwise unrealistic for the time it was written. To top it all off, the characters are all very shallow and far from sympathetic. I cannot recommend this book.

I was on the CNATRA staff as the assistant to the Director of Training when the first group of 35 young ladies were selected for Navy flight training in 1973. They all finished very strong with no attrites for any reason. None, Nada. Women can do the jobs he describs in his book. They can do anything they want to do, bad enough, just like us guys. And any of us had to want to be a Carrier pilot very bad. The whole plot could easily be imagined by a flag officer with his background.

This is a believable, insightful yarn based in a real world setting spun by an author who has "been there - done that". Most can identify with each character as someone they know or have met and not necessarily in the service. Sit back and enjoy it. Be prepared to gain some insight and to be intellectually challenged in the process. ENJOY.