Customer Reviews

Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs (General Aviation)

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I'm Bandit #35 in the book! I was a Red Eagle pilot in the 4477th TES and am featured in the book. I flew 500 MIG 21 sorties in support of Project: Constant Peg. I just finished reading the book and it's factual! Must read. Col (Ret) Frank "Paco" Geisler

Steve Davies has shined a light into one of the many dark corners that still remain after the end of the Cold War, and was able to tell a story that needed to be told. A fascinating look into one of those "black programs" that was arguably worth every penny the Department of Defense spent on it.

Red Eagles is largely a unit history of the 4477th TES (originally TEF, officially known as the "Red Eagles") that was based at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada and which flew three types of MiG's to train American fighter aircrew against them, the MiG-17, -21 and -23, over a period of nearly twenty years. This history focuses primarily on the pilots and other officers who developed this unit and their flying exploits over the course of its life. As such has as its strongest flavor a stream of personal histories, and the characters, antics and interplay of the aircrew assigned to the unit ranging from hilarious to quirky to autocratic. But the unifying thread is the American efforts at exploiting captured, borrowed, and bought MiG's and as such the book also touches, sometimes briefly and sometimes more generously, on the squadron's maintenance efforts, how the MiG's were brought to America or how American pilots managed to fly foreign MiG's in their host countries, the corollary exploits of the "Red Hats" at Groom Lake -which was the equivalent of a test squadron vice the training squadron that the 4477th became and which explored a larger variety of Soviet designed aircraft-, and the technical details of the aircraft.

Suffering a rude awakening from its combat experience in F-4's and F-105's against North Vietnamese MiG-17's and -21's in the Vietnam War, the USAF was handed a golden opportunity to recover its aerial fighting prowess when Israel offered it the temporary use of several MiG's flown to her by pilots defecting from several other middle eastern countries. This was the simmering catalyst of what eventually grew into a much larger (but almost always infused with a rag-tag and secretive character as a result of being an extremely black program half dependent on chance for its continued operation) effort to acquire soviet aircraft from foreign countries for exploitation (notably Indonesia and Egypt). As such the Red Eagles continually grew from a ramshackle flight with a small handful of aircraft at a remote, dusty and nearly forgotten base to a fully professional, integrated Air Force squadron with a relatively large number of MiG's. On this foundation they could offer more consistent and reliable training exposures to Air Force units at Nellis, particularly during Red Flag, Navy units from TOP GUN at Miramar or undergoing work-ups at NAS Fallon, and USMC units from El Toro. The value of this training to US pilots, consisting of actual exposure to the type of aircraft they could expect to encounter in hostile situations and flying the spectrum from standard enemy tactics to anything goes, full out dogfighting, was obviously tremendous. The Red Eagles truly deserve many of the laurels for later American aerial victories against Libya and Iraq, and the story of the squadron is a great one well told by Davies.

The history of the unit is pretty captivating and exciting, with many fascinating details, particularly how the MiG's were acquired and maintained, the experiences the pilots had learning to fly them, and the results of match-ups between the best of what the Soviets built and the primary American fighters of the day. As a complete history it of course also includes the unfortunate deaths of several people involved in the squadron and the poignant effects these deaths had on the deceased's families, made worst by the fact that the details and true story of how they died and why could not be revealed even to loved ones until sometimes decades after the fact. The in depth thoroughness of this book is truly impressive though, and a great credit to its author who clearly spent a very long time investigating this recently declassified subject.

While the 80% of the book is the personal exploits of the pilots involved in the program and thus make this a great read for people who have served in military aviation, the technical and operational details of the MiG's themselves, although sometimes disappointingly scant, will also prove fascinating to those interested in aerospace engineering and aircraft design. The Russian philosophy of aircraft design was decidedly more rugged, reliable, and less complex than the American, but delivered mixed results. All of the Russian aircraft suffered from extremely poor range, and very poor cockpit design which hampered everything from visibility to ergonomic efficiency of use, but they also showed some surprising levels of performance and operability. The MiG-17 truly was an outstanding low speed dogfighter, and the MiG-21, in spite of its high energy bleed rate from its delta wing and supersonic dash optimized design, also held up admirably in the dogfight. The MiG-23 on the other hand was a dud as an individual aircraft, more dangerous to its own pilot and a nightmare to fly due to its poor handling characteristics. While it was practically useless in a dogfight it did deliver nearly stunning acceleration and high speed. Used with cunning tactics even this "turkey" could prove deadly, making dash intercepts against American AWACS (it was even able to out accelerate the F-15), chasing down F-111's, and being used either as a lure for more nimble MiG-21's or used to make lightning fast swiping runs against American fighters lured by the slower -17's and -21's.

There is a lot of great information in this book about a truly amazing chapter in aviation history, and it is well told in a very personal and humanizing manner. Definitely recommended!

This book is simply outstanding. Davies has seemingly talked to everyone of consequence in the Constant Peg program and gotten an incredible story down for the first time anywhere. This is a must book for anyone interested in American military aviation and the REAL story and rationale behind the Nellis AFB Aggressors and Top Gun. Also, he stresses just how difficult it is to keep planes flying when you don't have the owner's manual!!!

This is a fascinating insight into one of the biggest success stories of the cold war. Hearing from the participants in their own words makes this one of the most compelling books I have read. Well done!

"Red Eagles" is an adequate first published account of US operated Soviet aircraft in the late cold-war era. If it turns out to be the only book written on this minor but innately interesting bit of aviation history, then it will have been "decent". It is a chronological, by-the-numbers history that meanders from episode to episode in the history of a series of inter-related programs and fills the space with a lot of chatty personal and organizational stuff, that, while perhaps worth "putting on the record" in some sense, is also dull while many much more interesting aspects of the story were basically ignored.

Since the related units and personnel involved in operating Soviet aircraft (note to the author and others: they were "SOVIET" aircraft, not "Russian" aircraft - shouldn't a professional aviation writer know the difference and/or not write in blatantly incorrect colloquialisms?) changed often, there are no central characters to the story. Instead, it's the story of a series of a number of closely inter-related programs, and so over the course of the book, various pilots are introduced with half page travelogues of the various units they belonged to and the planes that they flew. To a man, essentially, we are told how such and such was a legend from whose backside the sun shone, and then a bit later this individual leaves the unit, never to be heard from again. I have no doubt whatsoever that these men were superb pilots and individuals of the highest caliber, but that the book focuses on them - and focuses on them in such a shallow and chatty way - is ultimately its undoing.

The book's strengths:
1. Interesting topic! Kudos to Steve for tackling the largely unreported.
2 Vignettes of pilots. The first few were interesting to read.
3. Providing a chronological/organizational history and a good sense of how they operated in a grey/black sense regarding things like financing.
4. Some good technically-oriented flying stories as reported by the pilots.

The book's weaknesses:
1. No interviews were conducted with ex-Soviet and current Russian, Ukrainian, etc Air Force pilots to verify or say something more intelligent about the aircraft and their characteristics to balance and frame the Aggressor pilots' observations. As such, the description of the aircraft have the depth and feel of the proverbial blind men describing an elephant. I'm not saying that this book should have been, for example, "about" the MiG-17. However, by having virtually everything written "from the inside", it loses a lot of analytical and objective possibility.
2. Too many vignettes of pilots (what a reviewer on amazon.co.uk calls "name dropping") that are included in lieu of potentially more interesting stuff as above. It gets really old and annoying after a while, and one gets the sense that our author is laying the groundwork for future free rides. Unfortunately, the readers suffer.
3. Essentially zero discussion of interesting technical questions relating to maintaining foreign-aircraft. Even the brief discussion of engine overhaul is done by a pilot, who would have but the vaguest notion of its specifics. How, exactly, do you overhaul a foreign aircraft engine and fabricate replacement parts of alloys not necessarily easily available in your country?
4. Essentially zero analysis from people with a more over-arcing and external view of the program. Just like a doctor isn't necessarily an expert on the economics of health care, the pilots and local commanders profiled for the book don't provide much objective insight into the program. Sure, these guys flew fast, had wild adventures, and suffered a few tragic mishaps. And sure, there are plenty of stories of pilots who went in with their F16s, got their butts kicked by a humble fresco or whatever, and then triumphed the next day, the lessons learned. But what did this mean more broadly? The authors' claim of direct link from the programs to success over the gulf of Sidra is a bit unconvincing.
5. Sloppy writing. I'm not a rivet counter. However, there's only so many times you can see a turbojet referred to as a "motor." Similar mistakes abound.

Additionally, while not a direct weakness, the book would have benefitted a bit from explanatory diagrams a la shaw's "Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering." But, it's clear that Davies has no real technical background (his background is in IT recruitment, which explains the emphasis on organization and recruitment) and that he's kind of "faking it" the whole way, relying on direct quotations and couched, vague technical analysis.

But, despite my criticisms, as I said, it's a decent book.

The book was great from start to finish. I would have been honored to be interviewing these die hard pilots. This was a story waiting to be told. Honoring those who died along with remembering the sacrifice of family and lifestyle that brave and capable men put forth, Davies does right by this story. The story is just as much about the people as it is about the MiGs. I bought it out of curiosity and kept reading because of the interesting subject matter and progression of the program that Davies follows.

Steve's book is an excellent read. Granted, there may be some aviation "nuts" who do not like the presentation. However, Steve collected a tremendous amount of information that should satisfy anyone's thirst for knowledge about the program. For those of us who were FWS instructors in the 70s, who flew against the Migs, and who developed air-combat tactics, the book brought back fond memories of one heck-of-a cool time and of some really, really great fighter pilots.

This book is a fascinating historical documentary of the use of captured Mig-17, Mig-21 and Mig-23 fighters by the US Air Force. These Migs were used to determine their capabilities and to train US pilots to combat them. The book goes into extraordinary detail on the pilots, the planes, the assignments and the tragedies. Every pilot involved with this effort was detailed. It is almost like being there as there is a tremendous amount of first person narrative.

I liked the book because I recall the time when there was so much suspicion about black (secret) Air Force programs and the speculation on what was going on. This book totally reveals the details on one aspect of those times.

For ten years the United States Air Force operated its own squadron of MiG fighters...and no one knew! The history of that unit - the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron - is chronicled in this 2008 release from Osprey Publishing.

Some two dozen other reviewers have already weighed in on Steve Davies' book and I second many of their comments. The 4477th TES/"Constant Peg" Program was a vital element in the USAF producing fighter crews that could survive - and flourish - in modern combat. The acquisition of the MiGs used in the program, the exploratory flights flown, the tactics evolved by 4477th crews, the personalities and politics involved in Constant Peg, the mishaps, etc. make for engrossing reading. I thought RED EAGLES was a great read.

Personally I think Davies deserves a "Sierra Hotel!" for the information he uncovered in his research. Years ago I plowed similar ground regarding Constant Peg's predecessors (Have Drill/Have Doughnut) which is why I'm so impressed by all the info Davies unearthed. At that time (late 1980s/1990s), Have Drill/Doughnut was still pretty hush-hush and some pilots like Tom Cassidy won't talk. Fortunately, Tooter Teague, Mugs and a few others opened up enough so I could include a chapter on Drill/Doughnut in my MIG KILLERS OF YANKEE STATION book. Perhaps Davies could have included even more on "what effect did it all have" but in terms of who-did-what-when, I think he did a first-rate job.

Short and sweet: Fascinating history, fine book. Highly recommended.