Customer Reviews

Loud and Clear: The Memoir of an Israeli Fighter Pilot

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

 

 

This is a book is much more than the story of a fighter pilot: it is social history, political commentary and a love story. Spector shows himself in the whole, unafraid to own up to moments of weakness or vanity, in a life full of accomplishments and achievements. He shares what he learned about leadership and personal responsibility, in such a way that it can be applied to any of us. Regardless of ones interest in flying or even Israeli politics and history, this is the compelling story of a man struggling to do his best.

General Spector's memoirs of his service in the IAF adds details and fascinating personal accounts not covered in depth in other books on the IAF. His aborted mission to bomb the Syrian General Headquarters in Damascus during the darkest days of the Yom Kippur War turned out to be a miracle of biblical proportions. His unit was diverted to stop a furious Syrian attack on the Golan when no other aircraft were available and turned the tide on the Golan. A former USAF Academy graduate, Joel Aronoff with three tours in Phantoms in Vietnam and vast experience in evading SAMS, helped lead another unit on the successful raid on the Syrian General Headquarters after Spector's unit aborted. Spector picked up on the American accent of the pilot. Danny Grossman another American with USAF experience that Spector mentioned didn't join the IAF until 1979 and was not there for the Yom Kippur war. Spector's accounts of an emergency landing in the Sinai after a mission over Egypt had me hanging on very word. His stories of losses of friends in combat makes this a different type of book than previously published books on the IAF.

Iftach Spector is an Israeli air force ace and one of the best Mirage fighter pilots. He set up a Phantom squadron and also returned to the air force to set up its 1st F-16 squadron. He has flown almost all aircrafts and even Helicopters in the IAF inventory.
This book is all about the organization of the Israeli Air Force and the wars it fought.
Contents of the book Chapter wise:
1. The Pilots letter to the Israeli Air Force ("The pilots' letter," published on September 24, 2003, was signed by 27 reserve pilots and former pilots already exempt from reserve duty. One of the signatories was a famous former pilot Brigadier General (res.) Iftach Spector. The letter is about refusal to take part in Air Force attacks on civilian population centers. More matter in this regards is further given by the author in the last chapter A Refusenik Speaks.)
2. December 1960 (All about the action in 1960)
3. Palmach (The strike force of Hagana (defense) organization. Also describes childhood days 1951)
4. By Myself (Personal and Operational life in the IAF)
5. Double talk (is all about training)
6. Bastille Day (Interesting chapter on the Mirage III a supersonic delta winged jet fighter)
7. Savage (About Bats the sister Mirage III squadron.Has written a lot on its Commander Ran Pecker)
8. Operation Focus (is about Israeli airstrikes on Cairo West (June-5-1967)
9. The Black Flag and the USS Liberty (The attack on USS Liberty suspecting it to be a spy enemy ship.)
10. Toledano (all about Zvi Spector)
11. From Inside- ("Mission to go deep into Egypt - find MiGs and shoot them down." Dogfight over Egypt - 26 June 1969)
12. Nissim
13. Authority
14. Challenge
15. Comradeship
16. Clarity
17. Baboons
18. Model
19. Room for Decision
20. Hassan again (Very Interesting -The aborted attack on Damascus Oct-9-1973)
21. Wholeheartedly
22. Halo - Interesting to read about the development of system for helicopters
23. Tammuz - Interesting to read.(Iftach flew the F-16 in 1981 to carry out an attack and destroy the Iraqi Osiris nuclear reactor at Tuwaitha. Although he did not fly the F-16 as compared to the Mirage and Phantom, this was still another major combat type for his logbook.)
24. A Refusenik Speaks - more about the letter to the IDF as described in the 1st Chapter.

I was surprised to find no details on the incident of defection of an Iraqi MiG-21 to Israel and its subsequent evaluations by the IAF. The pictures published in this book are too limited. One would expect more rare pictures of the Author, Israeli Mirage IIIs, the F-4s, the F-16s.
Overall I would rate this book 4 out of 5. A must read for all those interested in Air Combat and Operations of the Isreali Air force. The incident of a dogfight with a Syrian pilot is described so nicely it will hold your breath and would hardly let you keep the book down.

I must say that this book is not your average "there I was..." autobiography. While Iftach Spector still is the IAF's second highest Mig killer, behind only Giora Epstein, he focuses his narrative on the challenges the state of Israel and the IDF faced in defending their fledging nation, at a time of great strife.

The narrative is very remarcable in the sense that fighter pilots usually focus their remarks on the cockpit, the squadron and the mission. Not so with general Spector. He writes about the nation of Israel, the Kibutz, and the IAF's evolution from a small airforce to a world-renown fighting force. Perhaps the most refeshing thing about "Spike," is that his personal achievements are glossed-over in favor of keeping the focus of the story on the IDF as a whole.

This book is a true treasure of information on a rather unscrutable subject: the Israeli Air Force, its growth, training, pilots and its wars. He pulls no punches here. You'll read all about the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between. General Spector shows remarcable moral integrity in bringing to the fore issues that cannot possibly be politically correct in his country or service.

Highly recommended.

I thought that this book was one of the strongest books about warfighting and leadership that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I am very interested in these topics and search for books like this on a regular basis. Having said that, it is a rare occassion when I actually find one with such a grip. General Spector is an excellent writer with an uncanny insight and ability to capture the moment in it's fullness and beauty while relaying it in print with substance. Alongside his talent for that, he is able to present the important lessons learned eliquently and succinctly. I picked this book with the hope that I would learn something about air combat, leadership, and writing. When I finished it, all I could think about was the many people that I wanted to share it with in my community as an aviator. I would recommend this to anyone with a hunger for wisdom and experience in this unique arena among nations and men. I wish there were more out there like it.

I initially bought this book because I thought it was about the USAF in Israel but I should have looked at the title more closely. This book is great for learning a little bit about Israeli culture along with a little bit about Israeli military. I found it very interesting and it is a personal book so it is subjective. All in all I loved reading it and I would recommend it.

Excellent story of an Israeli pilot written from the heart. Personal details take over from fighting incidents but do not spoil his story. The war between higher pilots and pen pushers was very interesting regarding Israels fight against other countries, his being re-directed to another battle Zone while not finished his 1st operation shows how stupid ground directors were during his Squadrons many air battles very interesting book. I was interested in a Pilots version, from AMAZON Books

What attracted me to buy this book was the name of famous Israelli fighter pilot. Initially I expacted more accounts when a war was on, dependless the 6 Day War, War of Attrition, Yom Kippur. In these terms I found this a bit disappoiting while some sorted and choosen, seems, randomly examples or real air action accounts of brief type was brought to bear. Later on I re-considered my approach and valued higher the reality of fighter pilot's live both at home-dome and social with family. In general this is an interesting book where plenty of details could be found and discovered in case of other Israeli pilots achievements well known to me, by other books,reality of squadron live. Evaluation of military hardware and equippment, armament and it's application, some military planned operation conclusions and accounts must be pointed as strong items for this book. The weak point is the lack of 'being taken into first hand account action scenario, almost feeling like a back seater to Spector'. That was what I expected much more to be included in the book while less of his moral or ethic considerations regarding IDF/AF and military, leaders, buddies, wifes, kids etc. Nice story, possibly true and for sure first hand however a bit of disappointment suppresed A+ rate.