Customer Reviews

U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles

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"U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles" is an excellent, comprehensive history of a very little-known aspect of the development and operational deployment of American guided missiles in the early days of the Cold War. The title may lead one to believe that the book is a fairly broad outline of tactical missiles developed during that period. But it really covers just one system--the Glenn L. Martin Company's TM-61 "Matador" turbojet-powered cruise missile and its follow-on, the upgraded TM-76 "Mace."

The level of detail in "U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles" is remarkable. The authors start out with an assessment of the world's first practical, mass-produced cruise missile--the German V-1 ("Vergeltungswaffe Eins," or "Vengeance Weapon 1") "flying bomb" that Hitler used against England and other European targets in World War II. I thought I knew a lot about the V-1, but I learned things I never knew when I read this book. Some of the technical details about its design, construction and method of operation have never, to my knowledge, appeared in print before, at least not in readily accessible form. The authors apply the same level of detail to the story of the design, development, flight testing and overseas deployment of the "Matador" and "Mace," which trace their lineage directly back to the V-1. Much of "U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles" is based on reminiscences of former "missileers" with first-hand experience in the care and feeding of "Matadors" and "Maces" in the field. As such, it has the flavor of an "oral history" in which people and their experiences play at least as important a role as the technology.

Very little has been written about America's early cruise missiles. As far as I know, "U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles" is the only available book-length treatment of this relatively obscure subject. An interesting, in-depth and readable volume, "U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles" deserves a place on the bookshelf of every serious aerospace history buff.

OUTSTANDING!!! While extremely detailed, the included stories read like a novel. If you want an honest slice of Air Force history, this is a book for you. Additionally, if you need detailed, well researched facts about a critical weapon system often overlooked by many researchers, you will want this book in your library. I am an avid historian -- one who likes to peel the layers of the historical onion back, revealing the unvarnished truths of our past, and I am a Tactical Missile veteran. The stories of the air-breathing Matador and Mace catapulted me back to the 7 years I was a Mace Missileman, serving 4 years in the field at Sembach, Germany and 3 years at Lowry AFB, Colorado. I went on to support other tactical missile programs, including our modern cruise missiles and the amazing Pershing II. The men and women who supported these programs, often in horrible conditions and under immanent threat owe a debt of thanks to Robert Bolton and George Manning for compiling and writing this amazing book. For some, the level of detail may be overwhelming, as the book chronicles the ever changing organizational (unit) changes and the Military's whipsawed renaming of the missile systems, but, much like Grants memoirs, if you are a casual reader, there is too much history in this book to allow yourself to get lost in these detailed (yet accurate) bits of information. If you aren't into such details, quickly speed read through them and savor each story told by those who were there -- it's a fun read. The authors have successfully melded both a detailed scholarly research piece with incredible historical stories told by both junior enlisted men and senior officers, held together by the national conditions of that time. Well done!

Very thoroughly researched!...It reveals the importance of the role played by these weapons during the cold war and its effect on such dangerous moments in recent history! A very important document in my library.

This book wasn't exactly what I had hoped - too little technical info for this old missileer instructor. But the book DID relate the history of TAC Missile deployment of USAF's first nuclear-capable cruise missiles, the Matador and the follow-on Mace. It was more involved with relating the history of the system and the philosophies behind the deployments, and as such was very enlightening.

More than ten years ago, near the German city of Grünstadt, together with a friend, I stumbled by accident over an installation we thought at first to be an old U.S. Army Nike-Hercules launch facility. It took us a long time to realize that indeed it actually was the remains of a U. S. Air Force Mace A launch site. It had been Site III of the former 38th Tactical Missile Wing from Sembach Air Base.
Mace and Matador tactical missiles - the knowledge of these two missiles from the earlier times of the Cold War, armed with nuclear warheads, had until now been almost completely forgotten even by the folks who actually had the missiles practically in their back yards. It turned out to be a very difficult task to gather information from military history and other sources about these missiles and the role that they played during the Cold War.
It was not until some years later we found the the website of George Mindling which provided the first real information on the subject. Now, "U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles 1949 - 1969. The Pioneers" the book he co-authored has finally put all of the missing and forgotten pieces into one place for former missilemen, military historians and aerospace journalists to study.
It is the only book available offering the complete detailed and excellently researched history of the early cruise missiles and their operational deployment in Germany and Asia. This really outstanding book is a must not only for former missilemen who worked on the Mace and Matador, but also for Cold War historians and researchers was well. I also recommend it for the people in Germany where these missiles were deployed. The authors, George Mindling and Robert Bolton, both former Mace missileers, tell the complete story, from the earliest development of the Matador to the first young American missilemen arriving in Germany in March 1954, after a stormy crossing of the Atlantic by ship. They tell about the routine flying up to the East German border in T-33 "sim-missiles" used in practice and training for the guidance crews. Through the Cuban Missile crisis when the U.S. Air Force in Europe went all the way to DEFCON-3, when the American missileers were issued ammunition for their rifles.
The book contains a wealth of historical, technical, political and operational information, covering the different types of Mace and Matador, their guidance systems and the locations where the missile were installed. Thanks to the authors this important and interesting chapter of the Cold War history now will no longer be forgotten.
Klaus Stark, Berlin, Germany

I found this a well researched and thorough review of the early USAF tactical missile operations by people who had been there and experienced it first hand. I also was there at the begining in Germany and again in the Far East. This is a piece of little known Cold War history that needs to be preserved. This is a must read for those interested in military history and the early US history in guided missiles.