Every Man a Tiger

Rating:
Summary: Slapping Yourself on the Back
Review: Clancy has made a minor industry out of telling the military about itself in the most glowing terms. In this book he does it again, but at least in the title he's honest and up front about it. If this "we love ourselves" fest got any less critical we'd be putting Horner in for pontification. If you're not interested in reading the whole unvarnished anything, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Clancy really did a good job with this book. I have also read the first book in this new series he is putting out "Into the Storm - A Study in Command" and I have to say that this book is much better. One would think that as it is the second book, maybe he learned how to put together a non-fiction story in a more readable and interesting way or maybe the co-author was just a better writer. Clancy has teamed up with the General that was in charge of the air war in the Gulf War, and has a done himself a favor getting someone as inteligent and engaging to work with.

The book is basically three parts, the first section talks about the Generals career in the Air Force, the Air Force development from Viet Nam to the Gulf War and a touch of the politics involved within the different military branches. The second section of the book deals with the build up to the air war. The final section deals with the air war both the stand-alone part and as a joint effort with the ground war.

The author does not give you an action packed, inside the cockpit type of story. What we do get is the process for building up the forces, developing a plan, working with the other countries and military forces and finally the execution of the plan. I found the discussions of target selection and the relationship between the air and ground element to be the most interesting. Overall this is a well-written and constructed book. It has a lot of value if you are interested in the Gulf War or just how current U.S. battles are planned and fought. From watching the nightly news you can see that many of the same processes and tactics discussed in this book were used with the current U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan

Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag...
Review: From brilliant action depictions to incredibly boring statistics that do nothing for the overall history. Far from being Clancy's best work, this book intends to put general Horner as the guy with all the solutions, while his own boss (Schwarkopf)and his peers from the other armed branches are simple spectators to his great air show. Granted, Horner will go in history as the commander of one of the most effective air assaults ever witnessed by human kind and beyond a doubt will be held as one of the responsible for giving air power the predominance it enjoys now; however the cult to his personality is excessive while his mistakes are minimized. Sometimes is not easy to ignore Clancy's strong bias, which are tolerable in his fiction works but have no place on historical accounts. This book will go into the shelves to stay there, collecting dust along with the mediocre OpCenter series

Rating:
Summary: The operational level of modern air warfare
Review: General Chuck Horner, with the writing help of Tom Clancy, crafted a wonderful book that tells the story of how to organize, equip, deploy and employ massive yet diverse airpower during the Gulf War in 1990-1991.

There are three parts and fifteen chapters in this book. The first third focuses on the past (1960-1989) for Chuck Horner and America's Air Force before Desert Shield. The focus is on the unique climate amongst pilots, especially fighter pilots (Horner's primary skill set) and the entire aviation community. The emphasis Horner places on teamwork is striking, and shows the importance of every airman who contributes to launching and aircraft and its payload down the runway and into the skies. This part of the book also describes the strategic vision of Air Force leaders in the 1970's as they sought to apply the lessons learned from the Vietnam War, and reemerge from the post war malaise as a coherent fighting organization.

Throughout the first part are snapshots of what Horner was trying to create in the chaos that followed the Presidential decision to reinforce Saudi Arabia to deter further Iraqi aggression and finally expel Iraq from Kuwait. Horner, who became Commander in Chief, Central Command (Forward) CINCCENTFWD noted that everywhere he initially went, the staffs' "efforts lacked order and focus...missing essential details such as basing logistics and sortie rates." Horner's essential task was to understand the intent of General Schwarzkopf and the National Command Authority, and to focus the effort of the CENTCOM team to deploy and employ forces in a logical way that would accomplish the national strategic goals. In short, Horner had to translate strategic guidance into operational constructs that would provide specific guidance for tactical commanders while simultaneously forcing them to address and crack the individual nuts.

The second part of the book focuses on the CENTCOMFWD role in building and fighting the "halt phase" of the Gulf War. Everything from the tyranny of time, to building a coalition with forces of dissimilar training and equipment is covered. Of greatest interest, though, is the building of the plan for executing the war against Iraqi forces. The original genesis of the plan as a result of CENTCOM's Internal Look exercise and Gen Horner's discussion of airpower with Gen Schwarzkopf are covered. How to integrate Marine Corps air assets is covered. The transfer of the CHECKMATE plan to CENTCOM was problematic due to the clash of personalities, but ultimately worked. The influence of Clausewitz is everywhere evident in the planning phase-how to measure the will of the enemy, the simple things are hard, etc. Finally, the translation of all this down to sortie rates and targeting processes is covered in great detail, suggesting that General Horner was one tired man by the end of Desert Storm.

The last part of the book details the actions during the attack phase, "Desert Storm." Every detail from bridge busting, and artillery and tank killing, to SCUD chasing and sustaining sortie rates is covered. The assessment piece of the targeting cycle is criticized, but air based assessment is never as accurate as ground based assessment (but ground assessment is much riskier-everything has its tradeoffs). The integration of tactical air control parties with flanking units is discussed in detail. Lastly psychological operations are discussed, and Gen Horner candidly admits that it is very difficult to measure the effectiveness of operations aimed at psychologically disabling the enemy.

General Horner's bottom line, perhaps, is that "the impact of airpower on the enemy was underestimated, and the ability of airpower to destroy a deployed enemy was overestimated." If you want to understand how a modern air campaign is embedded into an overall campaign plan, Every Man a Tiger is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing Insider's Look at Air Power during the Guld War
Review: I just finished this book, and, quite frankly, I feel like I have just been through a war. As a US Air Force officer who was just starting out during the time of the Gulf War, I had been looking forward to reading this book for a long time. I had already learned quite a bit about the Gulf War through other sources, but I was looking for a legitimate source of what was actually happening, on the ground and in the air, from a day-to-day perspective, and from somebody who had lived the experience.

This was the right book! The opening chapters introduce us to Gen Chuck Horner in an autobiographical approach. We learn what motivates him as a pilot, as an officer, and as a human being. We gain some insights from his experiences during Vietnam, and ultimately learn how that affected his approach to the Gulf War.

But the bulk of the book is about the Gulf War, and how the coalition forces made their decisions on the best way to approach the battle situation. My favorite partsin this book, were the "day-in-the-life" segments. We get to follow Gen Horner from the moment he wakes up, through briefings, visits to units, phone calls, problem solving, meetings with coalition partners, etc. to the minute he finally, gets to go to bed. We see and appreciate the job he does at the most mundane level, and yet understand how those small things lead to the big picture of war fighting. Gen Horner is generous in spreading the credit for successes and does not hold back in accepting blame when that is appropriate.

The only reason I didn't rate this book 5 stars is the lengthy explanations of air power and strategy. For those who are not familiar with such concepts, this information is vital, and so you should consider my rating to be 5 stars.

Finally, I appreciated Gen Horner's essay's on coalition building and the future of air and space power. I was fortunate enough to be assigned to Space Command for a short time before Gen Horner retired as CINCSPACE and from the US Air Force. And even though I was but a lowly Lieutenant, and never spoke directly with Gen Horner, I can tell you his impact on all of us was profound. As Tom Clancy states at the end of the book, "Gen Chuck Horner was the right man at the right time."

Rating:
Summary: Good reading
Review: I read this book for the last 4 weeks and enjoyed most of the pages. A lot of the criticism of fellow reviewers is true. To notice: - Acronymes, a lot of them you can not re-read. I missed an index.

- Too few maps. Which town for example lies where? What was happening.

- Perhaps Chuck Horner isn't a top writer, I did enjoy especially these parts of the book.

- Perhaps Tom better had shut his mouth, I don't think he is that good a writer. The way he writes looks like he likes himself very, very much

- It is somewhat an amalgamous bit of history and desert storm. I liked both, the first gives a good insight in what was happening why and when.

- The statistical part of it is something you like.......or not!

Because of the lack explanation with maps, tables and/or indexes, just 3 stars,

Pieter Wolters

Rating:
Summary: Air Warrior in the Persian Gulf!!
Review: Mr. Clancy, once again, authors a "must read" about one of America's greatest military commanders. In this book, Clancy collaborates with retired Air Force General Chuck Horner for an "inside look" at U.S./Allied air operations in the Persian Gulf War. As a result of the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, during the Gulf War, General Horner was entrusted with new military authorities. The "Turf Warfare" between the American armed services that took place during the Vietnam War was no longer existant, and given military objectives with strings from the political leaders withdrawn, the General was charged with directing ALL American and Allied air assests during the DESERT SHIELD-turn-DESERT STORM period. This in an up-close look at General Horner, his indoctrination, development, and ultimate leadership in the arena of American Airpower. "Every Man A Tiger" tells the story of General Horner's relationships with the other military and political leaders, and how his heretofore career enabled him to be effective in the Middle East. As a combat fighter pilot, Chuck Horner learned the lessons of Vietnam, and helped re-structure the United States Air Force that was ill-prepared for that conflict because of the preponderance of the Strategic Air Command. For the person seeking to increase their knowledge of American Air Superiority and Aerospace history, Horner's story is "not to be missed." I would highly recommend this book for any individual interested in General History, Military History or Biography, or any other individual interested in this pinnacle point in American history and the United Nations.

Rating:
Summary: This is a fascinating book with echoes of "The Right Stuff".
Review: Part Biography; Part History of Air Power and Air Strategy from the 50's through the 90's -- this book is well worth the time spent with military jargon, good old boy acknowledgements, and the strong opinions of someone who was an important part of the winning gulf war campaign. Chuck Horner walks in the steps of many modern managers who wisely acknowledge that most victories and achievements are caused by decision making at the right time and at the right level. That level is seldom the top. Horner remembered his experiences when he was in action himself and attempted to avoid command level decisions that would unneccessarily limit the effectiveness of the air war in the Gulf. The book's disjointed format takes some adjustment and at times it is not clear when Horner has stopped or started talking and when Clancy is speaking for both of them. Clancy has written some other books in this format about the Gulf War and Norman Schwarzkopf has written his own book and it will be interesting to see what areas of agreement and conflict are in those books.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is on the U.S Air Force's list of recommended reading for a reaon. If you have an interest in what the USAF is and how it does what it does, this book is a must.

Rating:
Summary: One way of crushing Saddam Hoekie
Review: Well first of all its a big book ...so you'll have a lot of reading to do ... its interesting and some what exciting
If you want to know a bit more about the AIR OPS during Desert storm you'd buy this one .