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

by Robert K. Wilcox (Author) "Dan Arthur Pedersen could see the contrails of two jet engines as far as eighty miles away, at the edge of the high desert east..." (more)
Key Phrases: Top Gun, North Vietnamese, Red Crown (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Brilliant."

-- Stephen Coonts

"Gripping narrative....Wilcox is very good at describing the three-dimensional world of dogfighting....Exciting."

-- Publishers Weekly

Product Description

The mission:

Become the most skilled, highly-trained, and deadliest

fighter pilots in the world.

The place: TOP GUN

In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy's kill ratio had fallen to 2:1 -- a deadly decline in pilot combat effectiveness. To improve the odds, a corps of hardened fighter pilots founded the Fighter Weapons School, a.k.a. TOP GUN. Utilizing actual enemy fighter planes in brutally realistic dogfights, the Top Gun instructors dueled their students and each other to achieve a lethal new level of fighting expertise. The training paid off. Combining the latest weaponry and technology, mental endurance, and razor-sharp instincts, the Top Gunners drove the Navy's kill ratio up to an astounding 12:1, dominating the skies over Vietnam.

This gripping account takes you inside the cockpit for an adventure more explosive than any fiction -- in a dramatic true story of the legendary military school that has created the most dangerous fighter pilots the world has ever seen.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743497244
• ISBN-13: 978-0743497244
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #210,759 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent narrative history for the non-aviator history buff, April 23, 2006

By	Joseph C. Thomas "book bandito" (Suffolk, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Up there..with the Best of the Best..., February 10, 2009

By	Bertah Elena Delgado Salinas (Mexico City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read for aviation enthusiasts, November 24, 2008

By	JAC (Laughlin AFB, TX) - See all my reviews

'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.