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Rating: 
Summary: Great first hand account of life in an enemy cockpit.
Review: All right all right! In cyberspace I stand corrected ...its No, not Ro Kum-Sok. I never could get those Korean names straight when I lived there either. Rudyard Kipling would have loved Seoul....This is a good book, interesting reading. As a non-flyer, non-pilot all the tech talk about MiGs vs. Sabres is a bit daunting, but if you are a fan of the Public Television show Wings, this book is for you.
The book starts with the author landing at Kimpo before some dumbfounded US personnel. Then he flashes back to his childhood under Japanese occupation. Mixed in with discussion of childhood pranks is a rapid fire, zipped version of Korean history from the Shilla dynasty to the present. While no admirer of the Japanese (like many Koreans, he stauchly refers to the Sea of Japan as the 'east sea.') he points out that the Red Army also had a record of rape and pillage. This will not sit well with selective outrage enthusiasts who use the 'comfort women' issue for Japan bashing in the region. Kum-Sok states that the Korean Navy and Air Force collapsed early in the war...it was the Inmingun, or North Korean Army, that held together. Kum-Soks' summary of the war is essentially the western rendition of the battles. When the stalemate developed after mid 1951, the war shifted to the skies over North Korea and Manchuria. It remains a common myth that the US did not pursue MiGs into the skies of northeast China, but after April 1952, says the author, they did exactly that with deadly effectiveness, knocking MiGs down as they slowed to land. Again, stories about air wars and battles are hard for me to follow and understand, and Kum-Sok often gets lost in endless renditions of sorties, statistics, or engineering specifications. Still, he does discuss a number of weaknesses that MiGs had:
...they were not supersonic, even when diving;
...the T-shaped tail obscured your view and often was fatal when exiting the cockpit;
...the double-wall canopy would often fog up;
...there was no rear view mirror;
Authors comment. Rear view mirror?? Fighter pilots use rear view mirrors? Do they use turn signals too?
...poor fuel economy;
...long and visible contrails from Soviet jet fuel;
...lousy tires;
and a few other sundry items. After he defected to the south came the inevitable interrogation, tests of his credibility, and finally, fame. OF COURSE, one issue of tremendous relevance that our security services made sure to ask about was whether No Kum-Sok 'ever had sex with another man.' [I can just hear these losers on the runway at Kimpo ..."what? You are gay? Take that MiG back to North Korea NOW, homeboy!!!"] By the way Kum-Sok was unaware of the operation Moolah offer for a MiG, and defected to the west almost two months after the KoreanWar was over. He did receive the 100 grand, however
Rating: 
Summary: AN ABSORBING ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF A MiG-15 PILOT
Review: ON SEPTEMBER 21, 1953, A YOUNG NORTH KOREAN MiG-15 PILOT, NO KUM-SOK, DEFECTED TO THE AMERICAN SOUTH KOREAN AIR BASE AT KIMPO, TURNING OVER RUSSIA`S TOP JET FIGHTER TO THE UNITED STATES, AND FULLFILLING SEVERAL YEARS OF PLANNING TO ESCAPE THE REPRESSION OF COMMUNISM. NO KUM-SOK WESTERNIZED HIS NAME TO KENNETH ROWE, AND IS NOW A PROFESSOR AT EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY IN DAYTON BEACH, FLORIDA. HIS LIFE STORY, "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM," IS A FASCINATING AND RICHLY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST AIR WAR PITTING JET AGAINST JET. THE KOREAN WAR ALSO FEATURED THE LAST AERIAL BATTLES AT RELATIVELY CLOSE QUARTERS USING GUNS, RATHER THAN THE RADAR GUIDED AIR-TO-AIR MISSLES THAT SOON FOLLOWED. ON ONE SIDE WAS THE AMERICAN MADE F-86 SABRE, AND ON THE OTHER, THE RUSSIAN BUILT MiG-15, EACH REPRESENTING THE LATEST AND BEST TECHNOLOGY OF THE TWO SUPER POWERS OF THE COLD WAR. AS J. ROGER OSTERHOLM POINTS OUT, LITTLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT, OR PORTRAYED ON FILM, THE NORTH KOREAN AND SOVIET SIDE OF THE KOREAN WAR. THIS BOOK GIVES IMPRESSIVE INSIGHT INTO LIFE IN NORTH KOREA, ESPECIALLY IN THE COMMUNIST AIR FORCES, WITH EXTENSIVE DETAIL OF RUSSIA`S INVOLVEMENT IN KOREA, A CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET AT THE TIME. STALIN SENT TWO DIVISIONS OF TOP SOVIET FIGHTER PILOTS TO MANCHURIA, FROM VARIOUS UNITS WITHIN THE SOVIET BLOC. IN LATE 1949, AND AGAIN IN EARLY 1950, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, DEAN ACHESON, PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED THE DEFENSIVE PERIMETER IN ASIA THAT THE UNITED STATES WOULD VIGOROUSLY DEFEND, BUT EXCLUDED SOUTH KOREA. THE U.S.S.R., CHINA, AND NORTH KOREAN LEADERS THEN BELIEVED THAT THEY COULD , BY FORCE, REUNITE THE TWO KOREAS UNDER THE COMMUNIST BANNER WITHOUT INTERVENTION BY THE UNITED STATES. THEY WERE WRONG. THE EVENTS THAT LEAD TO THIS BOOK BEING WRITTEN, PROBABLY WOULD HAVE NEVER OCCURRED WITHOUT THE EARLY PARENTAL INFLUENCE FAVORING AMERICA AND CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. NO KUM-SOK`S FATHER WAS NON-COMMUNIST AND A MEMBER OF A DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HIS MOTHER WAS A ROMAN CATHOLIC, WHO REGULARLY ATTENDED CHURCH SERVICES, IN THE DAYS BEFORE COMMUNISM AND KIM IL-SUNG. NO KUM-SOK`S LIFE LONG ASPIRATION WAS TO LIVE IN AMERICA SOMEDAY. MOST KOREAN WAR HISTORIANS DISCOUNT THESE FACTS, AND, IN FACT, SUGGEST THAT NO KUM-SOK`S DEFECTION WAS ONLY FOR THE $100,000 REWARD OFFERED SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER (OPERATION MOOLAH) TO THE FIRST RED PILOT DELIVERING AN AIRWORTHY MiG-15 INTO ALLIED HANDS. AMERICAN B-29`S HAD DROPPED LEAFLETS OVER AIR BASES IN NORTH KOREA WITH THIS OFFER IN APRIL, 1953. NO KUM-SOK IS CERTAIN THAT NO MiG PILOT EVER SAW ONE OF THE LEAFLETS, OR EVEN HEARD OF THE OFFER. NO CHINESE OR RUSSIAN PILOTS WERE STATIONED IN NORTH KOREA AT THE TIME, AND HAD A NORTH KOREAN PILOT READ ONE OF THE LEAFLETS, THE MONEY OFFER WOULD HAVE MEANT LITTLE, NOR WOULD THEY HAD TRUSTED THEIR AUTHENTICITY. "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM" EXPRESSES WITH STUNNING CLARITY, THE FEELINGS EXPERIENCED BY A YOUNG NORTH KOREAN JET PILOT, LIVING A COMMUNIST LIE, HAVING TO FACE SUPERIOR TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED AMERICAN F-86 PILOTS IN "MiG ALLEY." THE BOOK OFFERS MANY TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE AIRCRAFT INVOLVED IN THE BATTLE FOR AIR SUPERIORITY-THEIR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. HAVING A HOBBY OF GIVING PROGRAMS ON THE AIR WAR OVER KOREA TO CIVIC CLUBS AND SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSES, I TRAVELED TO FLORIDA IN DECEMBER OF 1997,WHERE I HAD LUNCH WITH, AND INTERVIEWED, MR. KENNETH ROWE (NO KUM-SOK), AND FOUND HIM TO BE A VERY JOVIAL, INTELLIGENT, AND ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL GENTLEMAN. I HAVE READ HIS BOOK TWICE, AND HAVE GIVEN IT AS GIFTS TO AMERICAN F-86 ACES OF THE KOREAN WAR. NO KUM-SOK`S STORY WOULD MAKE A TREMENDOUS MOVIE. "A MiG-15 TO FREEDOM" IS AN AWESOME BOOK! I LOVED IT!
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