Rating: 
Summary: "Lose sight,lose fight."
Review:
An excellent account of what it is to fly modern fighter bombers such as Tomcats and Hornets in wartime theatres.This book is quite similar to the movie "Top Gun". Following a recent showing of the movie on The History Channel;Ann Medina (sp) interviewed a Top Gun pilot.He said that the movie was very factual.I believe this book is also very factual.As powerful,complicated and expensive that these modern war planes are,they are very difficult to fly and have their limitations.As well as that,they are easily damaged and take a great deal of expensive maintenance.
The men who become Top Guns are the cream of the crop in every way.They are smart,leaders,brave,competitive,excellent physically and at the same time imaginative,free thinkers and extremely disciplined.They know that they can die at any moment but are still able to perform.The teamwork,love, trust, and respect that must exist in order for them to do this work is well described in this book.
WE all owe a great debt of gratitude to these fine men and pilots.
Rating:
Summary: Exellent and compeling story
Review: This book brings out the dangers to todays military, and also talks about a war that took back seat to less important things. If you want to read a book of valor and courage in the cockpit of a F-14 tomcat you found the right book.
Rating:
Summary: Revealing Account of a Modern Fighter Squadron
Review: Black Aces High is an unusual book but a terrific one. Usually books about fighter squadrons give a lot of technical detail about airplanes and how they fight. Well this one does too. But that's not the emphasis here. The emphasis is on the flyers, who they are and what they go through in a modern fighter squadron. The Black Aces fly off the USS Roosevelt. Their fighter is the aging F-14 Tomcat, still pound-for-pound one of the greatest fighters ever made. Their assignment was Kosovo, a precurser to Afghanistan and Iraq. We meet them, learn the problems they are facing, and then go to war with them. War is scary and the Aces are full of trepidation. But the core of officers mustered by and including skipper Joey Aucoin leads by example. There is a great group of younger aviators too. This is a war diary. It shows you what really goes on in a navy fighter squadron. They're not all flag-waving heroes. But they get the job done. And its a tough dangerous job. Even the reluctant step up, which is the true definition of a hero. This story is a credit to the fighting men America produces.While there is a lot of shouting about how to do it, they are not going to be denied. The Black Aces subsequently led the bombing in Afghanistan and were later deployed to Iraq. Buffs as well as novices will enjoy this
realistic view - Barry Pitts, So Cal.
Rating:
Summary: Revealing Account of a Modern Fighter Squadron
Review: Black Aces High is an unusual book but a terrific one. Usually books about fighter squadrons give a lot of technical detail about airplanes and how they fight. Well this one does too. But that???s not the emphasis here. The emphasis is on the flyers, who they are and what they go through in a modern fighter squadron. The Black Aces fly off the USS Roosevelt. Their fighter is the aging F-14 Tomcat, still pound-for-pound one of the greatest fighters ever made. Their assignment was Kosovo, a precurser to Afghanistan and Iraq. We meet them, learn the problems they are facing, and then go to war with them. War is scary and the Aces are full of trepidation. But the core of officers mustered by and including skipper Joey Aucoin leads by example. There is a great group of younger aviators too. This is a war diary. It shows you what really goes on in a navy fighter squadron. They???re not all flag-waving heroes. But they get the job done. And its a tough dangerous job. Even the reluctant step up, which is the true definition of a hero. This story is a credit to the fighting men America produces.While there is a lot of shouting about how to do it, they are not going to be denied. The Black Aces subsequently led the bombing in Afghanistan and were later deployed to Iraq. Buffs as well as novices will enjoy this
realistic view - Barry Pitts, So Cal.
Rating: 
Summary: Uncommon look at a frontline naval squadron
Review: Former Air Force public affairs officer Robert Wilcox was given a unique opportunity to rwrite about the combat experiences of a frontline naval squadron flying the rapidly retiring F-14 Tomcat. VF-41's time in the Tomcat was usually personified with their shootdown of two Libyan MiGs in the early '80s, but their resurgence in the later '90s earned them strong praise after their conversion to the strike fighter role.
Lots of attention is given to the turnaround that the skipper effected with his squadron after a few years of decline. The turnaround led to the squadron's tasking in the skies over Kosovo against the Serbs in 1999. The development of a new way to fight, and the need to train the newer, junior pilots into lethal warriors while dodging enemy fire takes up the majority of the book, and readers will come to know the members of the squadron well after Wilcox' treatment.
While not as crisply written as Angles of Attack (by a former A-6 attack pilot from Desert Storm, since he was the author), the book is an uncommon opportunity to get a feel for they way that the Navy operates its squadrons, and the challenges that come with added responsibility and rank. Overall, the book makes a strong case for the Navy's ability to train and mold its leaders with a new generation of challenges, while making tis subjects all too human.
Rating:
Summary: I was there
Review: I just finished reading Black Aces High and thought it was outstanding. I read the entire book in one sitting and it was fantastic.
I was an F-18 pilot on that cruise and while the book concentrated more on the Tomcat than the Hornet, it accuratly portrayed the the missions and development of some fairly advanced tactics in SCAR.
The action in Kosovo was much more intese than Iraq.
In addition I was pretty close to most of the guys in the book and he really captured their personalities.
Sometimes the truth needs some embellishment to make an interesting story. However, this book was right on the mark, had no embellishment and was captivating.
Reading about the strikes in which I participated and the antics of squadron life brought back some great memories. Every squadron had a cast of characters that are pretty funny, but the VF-41 had a lot of larger than life personalities.
If you want an accurate portrayal of a squadron at war and the thoughts which pass through pilot's heads during combat, this is a great book.
Sincerely,
Kurt McClung
LCDR USN
VMFAT-101 (exchange F-18 instructor with the Marines)
Rating:
Summary: I was there
Review: I just finished reading Black Aces High and thought it was outstanding. I read the entire book in one sitting and it was fantastic.
I was an F-18 pilot on that cruise and while the book concentrated more on the Tomcat than the Hornet, it accuratly portrayed the the missions and development of some fairly advanced tactics in SCAR.
The action in Kosovo was much more intese than Iraq.
In addition I was pretty close to most of the guys in the book and he really captured their personalities.
Sometimes the truth needs some embellishment to make an interesting story. However, this book was right on the mark, had no embellishment and was captivating.
Reading about the strikes in which I participated and the antics of squadron life brought back some great memories. Every squadron had a cast of characters that are pretty funny, but the VF-41 had a lot of larger than life personalities.
If you want an accurate portrayal of a squadron at war and the thoughts which pass through pilot's heads during combat, this is a great book.
Sincerely,
Kurt McClung
LCDR USN
VMFAT-101 (exchange F-18 instructor with the Marines)
Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: Once in awhile a book comes along that cuts through all the hype and gets to the truth. Robert K. Wilcox???s BLACK ACES HIGH is that kind of book. Shunning adulation and geewhiz approaches to our aviators on carriers, Wilcox takes us into the heart of a modern fighter squadron as it flys and fights over Kosovo, an important but somewhat forgotten conflict for our forces. However, the Black Aces paved the way for what was done in Afghanistan and what will be done in future airwars. The squadron is preparing to fight in Iraq. But in Kosovo, the Black Aces are thrown in to fight a war dictated by other people. The Black Aces have to learn on the job. The dangers are everywhere. They innovate, fight their fears, come up with new ways of hunting and killing. They don???t have the benefit of ground spotters so must learn, almost like detectives, how to find their enemy, which is hidden and cunning. They end up being prime factors in the capitulation of the Serbian forces. Most importantly we learn in this book how the members of the squadron relate to each other and function as aerial fighters. It is fascinating to get behind the closed doors of a fighter squadron and see what really goes on. We see the personal lives of the pilots and air crews. There is even a love story. They are Americans to be proud of. This is a must read for anyone who wants to see and understand how a carrier fighter squadron functions today in this Age of Terror. This is the new right stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: tells an important story - just not very well
Review: Robert Wilcox follows the aviatiors of VF-41, a navy F-14 fighter squadron, as they learn a new brand of war in the skies over Kosovo in the spring air war of 1999. Though much of "Black Aces" (the title refers to VF-41's nickname) tells the same legends of naval aviation that I've read since about 1987, it does cover an important moment in the history of the F-14. Though the plane is on its way out (the Navy has already begun phasing out the earliest models, with the plane to completely exit operations by 2010), F-14's were given a late-in-life new mission of ground attack, probably meant to fill the gap between the already phased out A-6 Intruder and the not-yet-ready for primetime F/A-18E/F "Super Hornet". Equipped with laser and infra-red sensors, and armed with laser-glide bombs, Tomcat crews - pilots and radar-intercept officers - scour the hilly, forested terrain of the former Yugoslavia for Serb forces. Flying from the USS Roosevelt, Tomcats pass the mouth of the Adriatic (off the "heel" of Italy) and into Kosovo. Unfortunately, not fighting a true war, Serb forces don't attack or hide out in the open before they sweep into Kosovar-Albanian enclaves, forcing the American fliers to rely on their sensors and no-small degree of detective work to locate the enemy. For Tomcat crews, their eventual success is bittersweet: their ability adapting Tomcats to strike roles (for decades, the F-14 was a dedicated interceptor, more singular in that role than F-16 or F-15 fighters that were equipped with ground attack weapons) will do less to earn the aging fighter a reprieve than validate and pave the way for the plane that will replace it. Wilcox doesn't hint much at the "Supre Hornet" and doesn't begin to approach the controversy that the F-14 v. F/A-18E debate has reportedly ignited among naval aviation professionals. (On the last page, Wilcox mentions Super Hornet in glowing words - it's the plane of the future.) In telling his story, Wilcox follows the planes and pilots of VF-41 - from the "Hinges" (senior pilots) to the "Nuggets" (untested and sometimes not quite proficient new guys). Wilcox reveals the pressures that nearly crush the senior pilots - who must battle the poor weather and the F-14's poor serviceability as much the enemy. He also reveals the faults (and strengths) of the nuggets - at least one of whom appear to be using regulations as an excuse for their less-than-aggressive flying. Wilcox gets very close to his pilots - quoting them almost word for word. You get a sense, as he recalls individual statements - that
there's more going on then even he understands, even if he gets enough to encapsulate some thoughts in brackets. The writing is also embarassingly bad in spots - with Wilcox often summarizing a paragraph or completing a thought with a single-sentence paragraph that makes the book sound less like a history of war than a first-grade reader. Organization could also have been improved - Wilcox starts describing the faults and strengths of a Nugget - only to tangent into another pilot before giving closure to the initial assessment of the first. We also learn fairly late in the story that one of the F-14 pilots had transitioned from the A-6, the vintage carrier-strike jet whose role the F-14 was now trying to fill. You'd think that pilot's experience would have made him a prominent member of the squadron - but not to Wilcox. "Aces" has the feeling of a rush job. Wilcox accompanied the Roosevelt doubtlessly knowing as much as the rest of us that the 9/11 attacks would reduce the Kosovo war to a blip on the minds of many Americans. He reminds us that the F-14 can be a trying plane or that landing on aircraft carriers at night or in poor weather can be an ordeal rivaling combat, but he doesn't take us inside the minds of those pilots. Wilcox likely thought that he had already done as much to humanize his pilots by showing them lose their temper, miss targets, get chewed out by superiors or by displaying questionably unagressive tendancies for a fighter pilot - and had to "balance" things to stay in the Navy's good graces. The result is that we a get a sense that it's a challenge to fly the F-14, but not
why.
Rating:
Summary: tells an important story - just not very well
Review: Robert Wilcox follows the aviatiors of VF-41, a navy F-14 fighter squadron, as they learn a new brand of war in the skies over Kosovo in the spring air war of 1999. Though much of "Black Aces" (the title refers to VF-41's nickname) tells the same legends of naval aviation that I've read since about 1987, it does cover an important moment in the history of the F-14. Though the plane is on its way out (the Navy has already begun phasing out the earliest models, with the plane to completely exit operations by 2010), F-14's were given a late-in-life new mission of ground attack, probably meant to fill the gap between the already phased out A-6 Intruder and the not-yet-ready for primetime F/A-18E/F "Super Hornet". Equipped with laser and infra-red sensors, and armed with laser-glide bombs, Tomcat crews - pilots and radar-intercept officers - scour the hilly, forested terrain of the former Yugoslavia for Serb forces. Flying from the USS Roosevelt, Tomcats pass the mouth of the Adriatic (off the "heel" of Italy) and into Kosovo. Unfortunately, not fighting a true war, Serb forces don't attack or hide out in the open before they sweep into Kosovar-Albanian enclaves, forcing the American fliers to rely on their sensors and no-small degree of detective work to locate the enemy. For Tomcat crews, their eventual success is bittersweet: their ability adapting Tomcats to strike roles (for decades, the F-14 was a dedicated interceptor, more singular in that role than F-16 or F-15 fighters that were equipped with ground attack weapons) will do less to earn the aging fighter a reprieve than validate and pave the way for the plane that will replace it. Wilcox doesn't hint much at the "Supre Hornet" and doesn't begin to approach the controversy that the F-14 v. F/A-18E debate has reportedly ignited among naval aviation professionals. (On the last page, Wilcox mentions Super Hornet in glowing words - it's the plane of the future.) In telling his story, Wilcox follows the planes and pilots of VF-41 - from the "Hinges" (senior pilots) to the "Nuggets" (untested and sometimes not quite proficient new guys). Wilcox reveals the pressures that nearly crush the senior pilots - who must battle the poor weather and the F-14's poor serviceability as much the enemy. He also reveals the faults (and strengths) of the nuggets - at least one of whom appear to be using regulations as an excuse for their less-than-aggressive flying. Wilcox gets very close to his pilots - quoting them almost word for word. You get a sense, as he recalls individual statements - that
there's more going on then even he understands, even if he gets enough to encapsulate some thoughts in brackets. The writing is also embarassingly bad in spots - with Wilcox often summarizing a paragraph or completing a thought with a single-sentence paragraph that makes the book sound less like a history of war than a first-grade reader. Organization could also have been improved - Wilcox starts describing the faults and strengths of a Nugget - only to tangent into another pilot before giving closure to the initial assessment of the first. We also learn fairly late in the story that one of the F-14 pilots had transitioned from the A-6, the vintage carrier-strike jet whose role the F-14 was now trying to fill. You'd think that pilot's experience would have made him a prominent member of the squadron - but not to Wilcox. "Aces" has the feeling of a rush job. Wilcox accompanied the Roosevelt doubtlessly knowing as much as the rest of us that the 9/11 attacks would reduce the Kosovo war to a blip on the minds of many Americans. He reminds us that the F-14 can be a trying plane or that landing on aircraft carriers at night or in poor weather can be an ordeal rivaling combat, but he doesn't take us inside the minds of those pilots. Wilcox likely thought that he had already done as much to humanize his pilots by showing them lose their temper, miss targets, get chewed out by superiors or by displaying questionably unagressive tendancies for a fighter pilot - and had to "balance" things to stay in the Navy's good graces. The result is that we a get a sense that it's a challenge to fly the F-14, but not
why.
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