The Intruders

Rating:
Summary: Great flying Scenes, but no story
Review: If you are into NavAir, read this book. Carrier AirOps are described in detail. I am a pilot, so I loved those parts of the book. That's why I gave it 3 stars

As a Story, I found this book lacking. I get the feeling that Mr. Coonts wrote some high detailed, fast paced, adrenilin pumping flying scenes and then said, "I need a story to put them in."

The climax of the story came out of left field and left me Asking, "How did we get here?"

Read it for the NavAir Blue Water Ops. Just don't expect much of a story. If it was a video, I'd buy a copy, but I'd be doing a lot of fast forwarding

Rating:
Summary: Great flying Scenes, but no story
Review: If you are into NavAir, read this book. Carrier AirOps are described in detail. I am a pilot, so I loved those parts of the book. That's why I gave it 3 stars

As a Story, I found this book lacking. I get the feeling that Mr. Coonts wrote some high detailed, fast paced, adrenilin pumping flying scenes and then said, "I need a story to put them in."

The climax of the story came out of left field and left me Asking, "How did we get here?"

Read it for the NavAir Blue Water Ops. Just don't expect much of a story. If it was a video, I'd buy a copy, but I'd be doing a lot of fast forwarding

Rating:
Summary: A 5 star script ready for the movies!!! Exciting !!!
Review: In this book Coonts concentrates on action on an aircraft carrier with plenty of naval aviation action. Naval Air being the long arm of American Foreign Policy is depicted here in action. Jake Grafton the main character is interesting and at times reflects upon himself to see whether or not to get out of the navy of not, marriage with his sweetheart Callie is on his mind. Flap Le beau his Bombardier/Nav. puts a bit of fun and flare into the story. Although I'm not a pilot but an enthusiast, Coonts puts a lot of emphasis on what the pilots are thinking of while in the cockpit, no matter at night or during the day, as a reader you get to feel what the pilot and his Navigator are really feeling at the time.

THIS STORY WOULD MAKE A GREAT MOVIE about the life for an aviator living on an aircraft carrier, we have enough movies about the grunts on the ground,here is a chance to make a movie about aviators on aircraft carriers as they are America's long arm of Foreign Policy.

Rating:
Summary: Jake grafton teaches marines what it's like on a carrier
Review: Jake Grafton has to teach marines what it's like to be on an aircraft carrier. Landing and taking off on a slipery deck, learning all the parts to a carrier and how to put up with Flap LeBeau. This book you can't put down, I couldn't.

Rating:
Summary: The Viet Nam War is over, but it's no picnic for Jake.
Review: Jake's found a "good" job in the states training Navy pilots. All would be well if he could just control his temper and reconcile his feelings for Callie. [Paragraph End] Jake is maturing. In "Flight of the Intruder," Jake and his BN, Tiger Cole, decide to take on Hanoi without the Navy's blessing. "Intruders" shows us a Jake who no longer uses U.S. Govt. Property to "express his personal feelings," but he does resort to his fists in a few bar fights. One fight early in the story leads to an "opportunity" to cruise the oceans of the world for eight months with a ship full of Marine Aviators. This is plenty of time to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life -- if you can just stay alive! [Paragraph End] Jake was supposed to be on the 8-month cruise to train the Marines. I didn't get the feeling that Jake was much of a mentor. Jake was one hell of a good pilot, but other than giving some briefings on how to operate an A6 in a carrier environment, I couldn't tell that Jake was helping the Marines adapt all that much. In fact, one pilot died as a result of not checking something that Jake checked before every flight. Jake thought all pilots knew about this important check, but it's something the Marines had no knowledge of. Oops! [Paragraph End] There are some great "sea-stories" about the bad luck that seems to follow Marines: "Bad things just seem to happen to Marines." I laughed until my sides hurt at the predicament of a Marine in an F8 who over-pressurized and ruptured all of his fuel tanks during a re-fueling rendezvous with a tanker. The leaking fuel tanks were just the beginning of this Marine's problems. [Paragraph End] As "Intruders" shows though, bad things don't just happen to Marines; they also happen to Jake. Depending on how you look at it, Jake either has the most luck, or worst luck, of any human being in the world. The number of bad things that happen to Jake -- in the air, on the ground, everywhere! -- are unbelievable. In fact, it reaches the point of being preposterous. [Paragraph End] I enjoyed the budding relationship Jake had with Callie in "Flight of the Intruders." Maybe I'm too soft -- and don't get me wrong, "Intruders" is an action, guy-kind-of novel -- but I felt the best part of "Intruders" was the Jake and Callie relationship. Jake never stopped thinking about Callie throughout the story, and neither did I. [Paragraph End]

Rating:
Summary: Fills in the Gaps
Review: More than anything else The Intruders tells long-time Jake Grafton fans what happened to him after Vietnam. The action is quick-paced and tightly written, but learning about how he and Callie finally came together was a great sidebar. I have one request for Mr. Coontz. Where is Flap LeBeua. I think he should be Commandant of the Marine Corps by now and fit in quite well with Admiral, soon to be CNO.

Rating:
Summary: Better characters then Flight Of The Intruder, amazing!!!!!!
Review: The followup to Flight Of The Intruders delivers another punch for Coonts' skills at writing about Naval Aviation. Flap LeBeau, while others may disagree, is a better character then Tiger Cole ever was. Coont's can't be stopped in pure action and excitement.

Rating:
Summary: Some OK plottting, Interesting insights.
Review: The Intruders follows Jake Grafton shortly after the end of Flight of the Intruder, to 1973 on a cruise on the U.S.S. Columbia flying A-6E Intruders. In this book Grafton flies with a Marine captain Bombadier/Navigator (BN) named "Flap" Le Beau, who is ex-Marine Recon, and has some very interesting jungle/guerilla warfare skills, as well as an assortment of custom-made slashing and thrownig knives ("What are you, a walking cutlery store?" Jake asks at one point). There is not too much action for the first while, just mainly a series of carrier accidents and mishaps, but there IS some action and plotting toward the last 80 or so pages where Le Beau is truly in his element, along with Grafton. A must-read for all fans of Stephen Coonts and carrier aviation

Rating:
Summary: This was an interesting book about military life.
Review: This is a good book. Stephen Coonts does a great job depicting life on a MARINE aircraft carrier. He goes into great detail about how things work on the aircraft carrier. The way that the book is written you can get a good visual picture of what is happening. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes anything that has to do with airplanes or warfare

Rating:
Summary: Good questions. No answers.
Review: Throughout this one, Jake struggles with the meaning of life and fatalism. Amazinginly (but not realistically) he manages to never even consider including God in this equation. Thus, by the end of the book he still has no answers to his questions. Plane after plane is dumped in the ocean - about half of them by Jake. Some good flight sequences in this one.