Punk's War ("Now Hear This" Audiobooks)

Rating:
Summary: Punk's War
Review: Punk's War
By Ward Carroll
Naval Institute Press
"Punk's War" is by far and away the best book I have ever read about day to day life in a Navy fighter squadron.
It's near 100% accurate, extremely well written, engaging, amusing, insightful and even thrilling in places.
The author, a Naval Academy graduate and victim of several tours as the Radar Intercept Officer in an F-14 squadron at sea, is currently an English and ethics teacher at the Academy in Annapolis, so he speaks with authority about life on the boat and in a squadron. The fact that he sat in back while the hero, a Tomcat driver with the callsign of "Punk," (having to do with his musical tastes and not his attitude) is a pilot seems to have no adverse effect on the legitimacy of the story.
(For some reasons, backseaters write the best books; pilots fly the best loops.)
Only 224 pages, the hardbound novel grabs the reader from page one and won't let go.
The story begins with the ex-Blue Angel, ego-driven squadron skipper ousting his ready alert five crew - Punk and his backseater - so he can take over the presumed MiG interdiction mission. It won't give away too much to confide that the engagement goes to hell in a hurry.
As the story unfolds, Carroll does a masterful job of combining the day to day minutiae of life on the boat while simultaneously weaving a well-told tale that's said to be fiction but one wonders ...
You'll meet the surface warfare admiral who has no idea how to handle those pesky flyboys, the air wing commander who'd rather be behind a Pentagon desk, the squadron skipper who has let his Blue Angels tour and Topgun graduation go to his head. There's the usual collection of quirky squadron characters, tough missions, dangerous shipboard approaches, a sneaky Middle East country that's trying to start a war and a bunch of likeable guys doing a very tough and dangerous job (and they're still out there doing it now).
You'll gain new insight into what it's like to fly and fight the F-14 Tomcat, how the Navy interacts with the Air Force, what happens on a strike planning mission, and how life with enlisted men (and women, nowadays) can often be tedious and not a little frustrating.
Happily, the only "love story" (which seems to be a requirement of late) woven into the fabric of this multi-colored tail is Punk's remote relationship with his girl, which is touched upon but barely enough to slow down the story. Mostly, its a wonderfully accurate and revealing look at life among the Navy's carrier elite - fighter pilots.
Carroll is also to be commended for not assuming the reader alreadys knows everything there is to know about Navy life. When he writes about life in the ready room, he describes how it looks (and it sounds exactly like everyone I've ever been in). If there's a complicated piece of equipment used by the aircraft crew, he names it and what it does.
But mostly this is a story about people, men who fly and fight F-14 Tomcats, and those who command them. If you have even the slightest interest in the subject, you'll thank me for buying this book.
- Wayman Dunlap

Rating:
Summary: Punk's War
Review: Punk's War
By Ward Carroll
Naval Institute Press
"Punk's War" is by far and away the best book I have ever read about day to day life in a Navy fighter squadron.
It's near 100% accurate, extremely well written, engaging, amusing, insightful and even thrilling in places.
The author, a Naval Academy graduate and victim of several tours as the Radar Intercept Officer in an F-14 squadron at sea, is currently an English and ethics teacher at the Academy in Annapolis, so he speaks with authority about life on the boat and in a squadron. The fact that he sat in back while the hero, a Tomcat driver with the callsign of "Punk," (having to do with his musical tastes and not his attitude) is a pilot seems to have no adverse effect on the legitimacy of the story.
(For some reasons, backseaters write the best books; pilots fly the best loops.)
Only 224 pages, the hardbound novel grabs the reader from page one and won't let go.
The story begins with the ex-Blue Angel, ego-driven squadron skipper ousting his ready alert five crew - Punk and his backseater - so he can take over the presumed MiG interdiction mission. It won't give away too much to confide that the engagement goes to hell in a hurry.
As the story unfolds, Carroll does a masterful job of combining the day to day minutiae of life on the boat while simultaneously weaving a well-told tale that's said to be fiction but one wonders ...
You'll meet the surface warfare admiral who has no idea how to handle those pesky flyboys, the air wing commander who'd rather be behind a Pentagon desk, the squadron skipper who has let his Blue Angels tour and Topgun graduation go to his head. There's the usual collection of quirky squadron characters, tough missions, dangerous shipboard approaches, a sneaky Middle East country that's trying to start a war and a bunch of likeable guys doing a very tough and dangerous job (and they're still out there doing it now).
You'll gain new insight into what it's like to fly and fight the F-14 Tomcat, how the Navy interacts with the Air Force, what happens on a strike planning mission, and how life with enlisted men (and women, nowadays) can often be tedious and not a little frustrating.
Happily, the only "love story" (which seems to be a requirement of late) woven into the fabric of this multi-colored tail is Punk's remote relationship with his girl, which is touched upon but barely enough to slow down the story. Mostly, its a wonderfully accurate and revealing look at life among the Navy's carrier elite - fighter pilots.
Carroll is also to be commended for not assuming the reader alreadys knows everything there is to know about Navy life. When he writes about life in the ready room, he describes how it looks (and it sounds exactly like everyone I've ever been in). If there's a complicated piece of equipment used by the aircraft crew, he names it and what it does.
But mostly this is a story about people, men who fly and fight F-14 Tomcats, and those who command them. If you have even the slightest interest in the subject, you'll thank me for buying this book.
- Wayman Dunlap

Rating:
Summary: Punk's War
Review: Punk's War
By Ward Carroll
Naval Institute Press
"Punk's War" is by far and away the best book I have ever read about day to day life in a Navy fighter squadron.
It's near 100% accurate, extremely well written, engaging, amusing, insightful and even thrilling in places.
The author, a Naval Academy graduate and victim of several tours as the Radar Intercept Officer in an F-14 squadron at sea, is currently an English and ethics teacher at the Academy in Annapolis, so he speaks with authority about life on the boat and in a squadron. The fact that he sat in back while the hero, a Tomcat driver with the callsign of "Punk," (having to do with his musical tastes and not his attitude) is a pilot seems to have no adverse effect on the legitimacy of the story.
(For some reasons, backseaters write the best books; pilots fly the best loops.)
Only 224 pages, the hardbound novel grabs the reader from page one and won't let go.
The story begins with the ex-Blue Angel, ego-driven squadron skipper ousting his ready alert five crew - Punk and his backseater - so he can take over the presumed MiG interdiction mission. It won't give away too much to confide that the engagement goes to hell in a hurry.
As the story unfolds, Carroll does a masterful job of combining the day to day minutiae of life on the boat while simultaneously weaving a well-told tale that's said to be fiction but one wonders ...
You'll meet the surface warfare admiral who has no idea how to handle those pesky flyboys, the air wing commander who'd rather be behind a Pentagon desk, the squadron skipper who has let his Blue Angels tour and Topgun graduation go to his head. There's the usual collection of quirky squadron characters, tough missions, dangerous shipboard approaches, a sneaky Middle East country that's trying to start a war and a bunch of likeable guys doing a very tough and dangerous job (and they're still out there doing it now).
You'll gain new insight into what it's like to fly and fight the F-14 Tomcat, how the Navy interacts with the Air Force, what happens on a strike planning mission, and how life with enlisted men (and women, nowadays) can often be tedious and not a little frustrating.
Happily, the only "love story" (which seems to be a requirement of late) woven into the fabric of this multi-colored tail is Punk's remote relationship with his girl, which is touched upon but barely enough to slow down the story. Mostly, its a wonderfully accurate and revealing look at life among the Navy's carrier elite - fighter pilots.
Carroll is also to be commended for not assuming the reader alreadys knows everything there is to know about Navy life. When he writes about life in the ready room, he describes how it looks (and it sounds exactly like everyone I've ever been in). If there's a complicated piece of equipment used by the aircraft crew, he names it and what it does.
But mostly this is a story about people, men who fly and fight F-14 Tomcats, and those who command them. If you have even the slightest interest in the subject, you'll thank me for buying this book.
- Wayman Dunlap

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book....
Review: Saw this book in "Proceedings" and I figured I would give it a shot since I like Naval Aviation and reading about it. I will have to admit, it was not quite what I expected. Some of the scenes were exciting but it seemed to capture the boredom and pointlessness of monitoring the then No Fly Zone. It also seemed to hit home the point that it wasn't the money that was causing aviators to leave in droves but other factors.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book....
Review: Saw this book in "Proceedings" and I figured I would give it a shot since I like Naval Aviation and reading about it. I will have to admit, it was not quite what I expected. Some of the scenes were exciting but it seemed to capture the boredom and pointlessness of monitoring the then No Fly Zone. It also seemed to hit home the point that it wasn't the money that was causing aviators to leave in droves but other factors.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book....
Review: Saw this book in "Proceedings" and I figured I would give it a shot since I like Naval Aviation and reading about it. I will have to admit, it was not quite what I expected. Some of the scenes were exciting but it seemed to capture the boredom and pointlessness of monitoring the then No Fly Zone. It also seemed to hit home the point that it wasn't the money that was causing aviators to leave in droves but other factors.

Rating:
Summary: EAGERLY AWAITING THE SEQUEL
Review: The best book about the real world of naval aviation I've ever read. Truly captures life as a junior officer in a carrier squadron.

Rating:
Summary: EAGERLY AWAITING THE SEQUEL
Review: The best book about the real world of naval aviation I've ever read. Truly captures life as a junior officer in a carrier squadron.

Rating:
Summary: Grand Slam by Naval Institute and Ward Carroll
Review: The Naval Institute published two previously untried authors in the past who went on to great success with follow-on editions and movie adaptations. Move over Clancy ("Hunt for Red October) and Coonts (Flight of the Intruder) because Ward has delved into the world of carrier aviation and gone beyond the standard techno-thriller to produce a study of command relationships and tensions against the backdrop of conflict in the Middle East. Ward is adept at revealing the perspective of not only the central character, a F-14 Tomcat pilot at the "junior officer", but that of his commanding officer, air wing commander, flag staff, comrades and maintenance personnel in a fast paced snapshot of life aboard an aircraft carrier caught up in rising tensions and ultimately combat. His narrative also taps the ethos and humor of the junior officer ranks (the most numerous population of officers aboard a carrier) and depicts many rituals and rites of passage such as use of callsigns. If you were too cheap or missed the hardback version, grab the paperback and buckle up for a thriller of a ride.

Rating:
Summary: A thinking man's military thriller.
Review: This book has a few shortcomings; it's a little light on flesh, and some of the plot structures are little simplified. However, what this book does deliver in spades is the pilot's eye view of war, not from the cockpit, but from his own throughts. We get a glimpse into the mind of junior officers, the fears of naval flying (many, I know from my own experience), the management styles that work and those that don't. All this is tied into an exciting story that requires just a little more input from the reader than most books. That input is well rewarded.