Chains of Command

Rating:
Summary: Another winner for Dale Brown
Review: Another great thriller from DB. In this one you have a bit of a change from the normal Patrick McClannahan story and you meet Mace as well as the "Iron Maiden". The world has changed and many of the fighter pilots are now part of the reserves, and a huge percentage of them are women. See what they have to do to become fighter pilots.

You will also learn a lot about photon bombs and their destruction of life etc. In this story you will cover a lot of ground from the Ukraine, Turkey to Plattsburgh NY as well as Iraq. It is a fast paced story with the normal plethora of detail on military actions as well as equipment from DB. I really enjoyed this story but I think Fatal Terrain is my favorite so far...

Rating:
Summary: Petty Politics and Poor Plot
Review: Dale Brown has much technical information about the F-111, and he batters his reader with the most insignificant, irrelevant detail. And while his irrelevant details about the aircraft might be at least accurate, most of the other basic machinery of his plots is not. He'd like to champion the liberal treatment on the part of the all-wise US military in general and Dale Brown in particular of the female warrior in contrast with the backward Turks. Fact is, however, that Turkish military forces have long had women in combat positions. His geography is often just plain wrong. But it is Brown's incessant, hysterical, and thoroughly irrelevant bashing of the Clintons that completely destroys any claim CHAINS OF COMMAND might have of being a novel. In his hate-filled brain, military officers, both junior and senior, curse their commander-in-chief and the First Lady with great frequency. Good military personnel in fact do no such thing. Whatever they may think, a good military woman or man understands the way the United States chain of command works. And in this same hate-filled imagination of his, Brown creates wholly unbelievable situations that make the Clintons, and folks from Arkansas generally, look and act like clowns. No matter whether one voted for Bill or Hillary Clinton or ever would, the pure venom spewed by Brown ruins what could have been a passible novel. I can't read Brown anymore. I can't bring myself to wade through the pettiness of his political and technical irrelevancies and incorrectness to get at the one or two solid elements of his story.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding work, but will life imitate art?
Review: Great book! It keeps the reader glued as to how the invasion of the Ukraine and Moldova is happening and how the Soviet Union is rising again. Col. Tychina, Lt. Col Mace and Maj. Furness are in-depth characters. I personally had the privledge of actually meeting Dale Brown and getting my copy of this book autographed by him. Great author and another great work!

Rating:
Summary: First time Dale Brown reader - enjoyed it to the end
Review: I haven't read many of these war/espionage novels, but this one I picked up before a long flight and I stayed glued until the finish. I thought that the F-111 flying narratives and the techno-aviation stuff were terrific (maybe because I'm a pilot). The political intrigue was well constructed, and perhaps even scary because it seemed too close to reality. The clash between the Turkish, and the US Air Force's use of women combat pilots, was also an intriguing element for me and I thought that Brown did an astute job in portraying the depth of cultural mismatch. Fast moving and easy to read, yet tense and exciting.

Rating:
Summary: Could have been a bit more realistic
Review: Southeast Europe is a region, which is highly explosive. The strike on Yugoslavia and the response of China, Greece and Russia to this strike proves this. So Dale Brown took a nice, clean shot when he decided to write about a conflict between Russia, Ukraine Turkey and a few other Balkan states. Although the book was based on a much possible scenario, I believe some ideas or 'fears' were too exaggerated to be realistic. First of all, it is seen that Russia doesn't have the power or even the fuel (I am not in anyway teasing the Russian readers and I know that Turkey was once in a similar situation after the Cyprus Offensive of 1974) to operate her Black Sea Fleet. Under present circumstances, it seems impossible for Russia to lead such an offensive all by itself. Another point I want to make is about the Turkish Military Forces. Although Turkey is 99 % Muslim, it is also famous with 'Raki'. I wonder if this irony pulled Mr. Browns' attention even a bit. I know a couple of Turkish Military officers, some ex- ones too and had the chance to meet some of the T-37, T-33 and T-38 pilots from Cigli Air Base, Izmir and F-16 crew from Murted Air Base, Ankara. I can assure Mr. Brown that the Turkish Military treats using alcohol outside active duty not much different than the Americans do. And they certainly don't treat woman combat pilots in the way he explained, especially if they're American. The Turkish Air Force and Navy will have some combat woman pilots flying the F-4's or F-16's, probably in the following 5 to 10 years. It may seem as though that I'm purely trying to defend my military and air force, but I can't catch such errors, small in appearance but huge in meaning, for other countries. Maybe there were such under-evaluated facts about Ukraine too. All I want to say is that Mr. Brown should have done better on research. Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Brown for writing such a marvelous book that I enjoyed reading, except for a few chapters.