19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To Fly and Fight--USAF Fighter Pilots in the Korean War, April 26, 1997
By A Customer
When the Korean War began in the summer of 1950, the United States Air Force was the youngest branch of the American military, having been
created as a service coequal to the Army and Navy less than three years earlier. Although the operational history of the USAF and the experience of many of its officers stretched back into the time when it was a branch of the Army known as the United States Army Air Force, the USAF hadn't yet
made its mark as a separate service. The Korean War came at a propitious time, giving the USAF a vehicle in which to shape itself as an institution. The fighter pilots who fought in the Korean War would become the leaders of the new Air Force. Their attitudes toward flying and toward the military in general would come to shape Air Force thinking over the next several decades.
In this book John Sherwood has provided the reader with a close look at the pilots who flew fighters during the Korean War--pilots who, by their skills and attitudes, would establish a style for those who followed. This style is defined by the author as "flight suit attitude." He writes:
Flight suit attitude ... was a sense of self-confidence and pride that verged on arrogance ... the aircraft of preference was the high-performance, single-seat fighter ... This culture placed a premium on cockiness and informality. A flight suit officer spent more time in a flight suit than in a uniform. In his world, status was based upon flying ability, not degrees, rank, or "officer" skills (p. 6).
Where did this flight suit attitude develop? The author begins by examining the backgrounds of Air Force fighter pilots in this fledgling
branch of the United States' military services. In a chapter entitled "An Absence of Ring-Knockers" he looks to a lower percentage of college-educated officers in the Air Force than in the Army or Navy, and particularly to the absence of academy graduates, as a contributing factor to
a flight suit attitude. Success in this early Air Force was not based on a fraternity of academy graduates, indoctrinated in a set of shared
military values; success was based, rather, on the ability to fly well and on the opportunity to participate in combat in Korea. The author presses home his point by looking at the backgrounds of eleven pilots who flew in
Korea, perhaps the best known of whom are Robinson Risner and Earl Brown. Only one pilot whose experiences are described in this book came into the Air Force from West Point; many came from relatively humble backgrounds. Their reminiscences of life in training and combat are spread throughout the book, giving it a personal, anecdotal character.
Pilot training is another factor that the author considers. In a chapter entitled "Stick and Rudder University," Sherwood examines the
training given to Air Force pilots in the late 1940s and early 1950s and its contributions to the flight suit attitude. He notes that the majority
of Air Force officers during the Korean War were pilots. Indeed, two-thirds of Air Force officers received their commission after completing
the Aviation Cadet program, the emphasis of which in was on flying skills. "Ancestry, education, and prior military training or military
academy experience had very little to do with one's status in the Air Force ..." (p. 39). The primary concern was how well one could fly an
airplane. The result for the Air Force was a more casual junior officer than the usual Army lieutenant or Navy ensign.
In his consideration of the air war over Korea for fighter pilots, the author looks separately at the experiences of those who flew fighter-
interceptors and those who flew fighter-bombers. The former group garnered much of the glory. The air combat of F-86 against MiG is the image which springs to mind when one thinks of the Air Force experience in Korea. This image has been reinforced in the public mind through
literature and movies. It is maintained within the Air Force as well by such devices as art on the walls of the Pentagon or a Korean War vintage
F-86 on a pedestal at the front gate of Nellis AFB. These F-86/MiG engagements were the very essence of the continuing Air Force image of a fighter pilot.
The experiences of the fighter-bomber pilots in Korea were of another sort. Flying somewhat lower-performance aircraft than the F-86, such as
the F-80 or F-84, the pilots in fighter-bombers faced a more hazardous day-to-day life from ground fire. Sherwood notes that " ... only 147 Air
Force planes were lost in air-to-air combat; by comparison, over 816 planes were shot down by ground fire" (pp 98-99). These pilots were often
given less status than the F-86 pilots, who sometimes referred to them derogatorily as "straight wings" in officer clubs. The stress of the hazardous flying also led to a higher incidence of mental illness among
fighter-bomber pilots. This dual nature of the fighter pilots' experiences lends an interesting element to the book. The pilots who flew fighter-bombers had no less of a flight suit attitude for their experiences, however.
Throughout this book one also finds ample evidence of the social life of pilots during the Korean War. In a chapter entitled "Thunderboxes and
Sabre Dancers" Sherwood looks at such elements of time spent away from the cockpit as bases, the O clubs and day rooms, the R & R opportunities in
Japan, and even at female companionship of several very different types. But all seem very secondary to the experiences of flying fighters. Even
the rustic conditions at Korean air bases served to remind the pilots that their primary reason for being in Korea was to fly fighter aircraft.
Sherwood concludes his book with a look at the careers of the eleven pilots after the Korean War. All but one remained in the Air Force. Most
discovered that the flight suit attitude they embraced early in their flying careers did not always serve them well in the developing bureaucracy ofthe United States Air Force. But most maintained this attitude anyhow,
even when a promotion might be lost as a result. Almost inevitably, with few exceptions, they didn't rise above the rank of colonel. It is at that stage of one's career, as one of the pilots noted, where "MiGs start to matter less and power politics take over" (p. 163). But the author concludes that the presence of the pilots who flew fighters in the Korean War contributed much to the shaping of the Air Force.
Interestingly, the obituary of a former Korean War era fighter pilot appeared briefly in recent news, the report neatly reinforcing some of the concepts
in Sherwood's book. _U.S. News & World Report_ noted the passing at the age of 70 of one John Boyd, Colonel, USAF, retired. A USAF fighter pilot in Korea and, later, an instructor pilot, Boyd's military influence ranged from the development of doctrines of air combat through the design of planes to his service in the Pentagon, where he and members of a so-called "Fighter
Mafia" apparently helped prevail upon the Air Force to build the F-16 and A-10. His influence after his retirement extended to Congress and to people like Dick Cheney, who listened to and learned from Boyd's ideas on historical trends in military success presented in briefings. Boyd seems the epitome of an officer in a flight suit, the type of pilot Sherwood describes so well.
John Sherwood has written an excellent book, combining the military history of USAF fighter operations in the Korean War with the social context of the pilots who flew the fighters. He has contributed much towards a better understanding of the developmental years of the United States Air Force. This book is well worth the reading for anyone with an interest in the Korean War, in the United States Air Force, or in those elusive qualities of character on which larger organizations turn.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Officers in Flight Suits: Excellent Reading, January 20, 2000
Many authors, such as Robert Futrell and Larry Davis, have written very thorough histories of the air war in Korea, with great detail of dates, missions flown, technical date, etc.,but this is the first book on social and cultural histories of that subject. Unlike World War II, the exploits of fighter pilots in Korea overshadowed the bombing campaigns. This book is an extensive examination of the "flight suit attitude," a combination of cockiness and pride, that has always characterized the fighter pilot. "Officers in Flight Suits" details these pilot`s social background, aviation training, combat effectiveness, and off-duty activities, focusing on eleven living participants (such as Robinson Risner)after Sherwood interviewed approximately fifty flight suit officers. The air war in Korea is best remembered for its legendary air battles between the American F-86 Sabre and the Russian built MiG-15, which Sherwood emphasizes, but he also covers the fighter-bomber pilots involved in air interdiction. I have visited by phone with Mr. Sherwood several times and he is exceptionally knowledgeable and helpful with my hobby of giving programs on the Korean Airwar. This is a great book! If you have an interest in the Korean War and haven`t read this book, buy it now!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Glimpse of the Social History of American Pilots during the Korean War, February 18, 2008
This review is from: Officers in Flight Suits: The Story of American Air Force Fighter Pilots in the Korean War (Paperback)
In "Officers in Flight Suits" John Darrell Sherwood describes the social environment of the United States Air Force during the Korean War. Using interviews with twelve airmen who were representative of the Air Force at the time, Sherwood documents his comparative analysis of their experiences to draw conclusions about society as a whole.
The author tries to explain the "Flight Suit" mentality - the mind-set of the alpha male in search of the next thrill. {If one were to try to explain this mindset today, the reader would visualize extreme sports athletes}. By the end of the book, he actually laments at the loss of this mind-set in the Air Force of today.
The book starts off strong by providing brief biographies of twelve airmen, such as "Robbie" Risner (later a POW during the Vietnam War) and Earl Brown, a black man who retired as a three-star general. Using material from personal interviews, Sherwood breaks down various topics such as "MiG Sweeps", life at the bases in Korea, and R&R trips to Japan. After briefly covering these topics, he concludes the book by revisiting where each of the twelve officers ended up.
For readers looking for a description of aerial combat, I would recommend Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War". If you are looking for a book documenting the social history of the 1950's, this one's for you.
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