Customer Reviews

Scream of Eagles: The Dramatic Account of the U.S. Navy's Top Gun Fighter Pilots (How They Took the Skies Back Over VietNam)

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4 star:		(2)
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Really a fun book - it is aimed at the general reader and is thus not academically oriented, but its factual information does have academic value. I read the original edition about 7 or 8 years ago, but just recently reread much of it for some research on the F-4 Phantom II. Low on technical data, instead the author gives the history of the human interactions that spawned the Top Gun Fighter Weapons School (which they made a really bad Tom Cruise movie about, but with F-14s). Much of it is told by the Navy officers who were there, and Wilcox brings it all together to explain what was wrong with the Naval air war in Vietnam and how the Navy fixed it.

This book is becoming a buzzword in flight simulator forums around the Internet. Anyone who's 'flown' a flight simultor on their home computers should read this book. It'll really change the way you view PC 'flying'. I also recommend Wilcox's other book, "Wings of Fury", which is a collection of tales from Navy and Air Force pilots from Viet Nam to Tripoli to Desert Storm. "Scream of Eagles" is a must-read for aviation enthusiasts and Viet Nam historians, and a very good read for everyone else.

When I finished reading Robert Wilcox' Wings of Fury, I was impressed. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to read his earlier work Scream of Eagles (The Creation of TopGun).

Sincerely this is even better than Wings of Fury. There are plenty of first person accounts (sea stories) of TopGun's genesis and dogfights against the VPAF. The USN was less than enthusiastic about funding and equipping this new school in 1969. When you read about this and put yourself back in time, it's amazing that TopGun ever got started. But that's just part of the story...

The F-8 Crusader's days were numbered as the F-4 Phantom was replacing the 'sader in the Fleet. The men that developed TopGun knew that BVR missile shots were not the answer. Pilots needed to know how to dogfight and get the maximum performance out of their airplane and work as a team (both as a section of fighters and as a Pilot/RIO team). TopGun provided the cadre to teach fleet Phantom crews to build this teamwork.

If y! ou're a fan of the F-4 Phantom, read this book. If you're a fighter aviation history buff, read this book. After you read this, go read Marshall Michel's CLASHES:Air Combat Over North Vietnam 1965-1972. You'll be shaking your head, wondering if the USN and USAF were fighting the same war. Makes you kinda wonder why the USAF scaled back its Agressor squadrons in recent years.

Robert Wilcox has gone where few have tread -- to the air above Vietnam -- and we are left with a tightly written, throughly researched eye-opener of what really happened up there, and what Top Gun really was minus pretty boys in makeup and a rock and roll score. A must read for Jane Fonda.

I found this book to be absolutely gripping, a real page-turner despite the fact that I had read several books on this material already. The author has an outstanding narrative style that brings events and personalities to life. The author makes the entire story interesting: not just the combat dogfights but also the struggles to create the Top Gun school. This is a very coherent book that tells an amazing story. I recommend this for all levels of interest in military aviation: whether you're an aspiring aviator or currently wearing Navy wings, you'll love it.

The book came quickly, but no where did it mention it as a used library book. That did not please me since I was getting it autographed by the first CO of top gun and others mentioned in the book.

The book is excellent and a must read.

This little book provides an excelent and thorough account of the circunstances that led to the creation of Top Gun, it takes you behind the scenes and show's you from the perspective of the pilots how to apply what they learned at school in real engagements in the deadly skies of Vietnam against Mig's.

'Scream of Eagles' is well-written and thoroughly researched. Aviation enthusiasts and military buffs will certainly enjoy the detailed accounts of dogfight tactics and weapons employment, but it is probably too detailed in many places to hold the attention of more casual readers.

SCREAM OF EAGLES is a book that tells about the Navy's air war in Vietnam- the terrible losses of expensive aircraft to a peasent's air force, and the triumphant victory after the creation of the Navy's Fighter Weapon School (Top Gun).

This book has accounts from such Navy pilots as Randy Cunningham and others, as well as detailed analysis of dogfights in Vietnam and in the Top Gun school. It's obvious that Robert Wilcox knows his stuff about Naval Aviation.

For everyone who thinks they know what it takes to be a top gun pilot based on the film, Top Gun, run, don't walk to the store and get Bob Wilcox's "Scream of Eagles." Here's the real story of the creation of Top Gun during the Vietnam war and it's a hell of a good story as told by Wilcox. He really puts you in the cockpit with the best of the best. They should make this into a movie!