Book Reviews

Title: The B-45 Tornado: An Operational History of the First American Jet Bomber
Author:John C. Fredriksen
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Reviewer: David Tschantz

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0786442786

The North American B-45 Tornado was America's first jet bomber and was used in a number of vital missions for nearly a decade. Drawing from declassified secret documents, this history explains the bomber's use in strategic reconnaissance and atomic-weapon strike missions from its 1944 development to its role in the Cold War. The book includes numerous photographs and more than 100 interviews with pilots, navigators, and ground personnel.

Title: Cornfield Soldiers - Utah Beach to the Elbe River
Author: Paul Michael Frazee
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Pat Avery

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1882824326

Cornfield Soldiers tells the story of how 500 American fighting men fought their way from Utah Beach to the Elbe River during the Normandy Campaign of WWII. These engineers would build hundreds of bridges under fire, lay thousands of mines, help liberated Aachen, fight at the Bridge of Remagen, discover the Nazi baby factories in the Harz Mountains, survive the onslaught in the Ardennes and liberate the Dora-Mittlebau concentration camp shortly before the final destruction of the Third Reich.

Continuing the story from "Summer Storm - Prelude to Pearl Harbor," (Frazee's second novel), Cornfield Soldiers is an in-depth examination of the training received by the men who answered FDR's call to arms on 8 December 1941 and the battles they fought in North Africa and Normandy. It details both their combat and their engineering accomplishments - which eventually lead to them being one of the most-highly decorated combat engineer units in the European campaign.

Title: Cleared to Land: Memoirs of an Army Air Traffic Controller Vietnam--Mar 68-Sep 71
Author: Jeffrey K. Fozard
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewer: Rob Ballister

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1438971222

Memoirs of my three years as an air traffic controller in Vietnam. I worked in Soc rang, Can Tho, Bear Cat, Phu Hiep and Phu Bai. Air traffic at the most was over 2000 operations a day in Can Tho. We had one PSP runway of 3000' and two swamps for approaches. On my days off, I flew as a door gunner. I have crewmember time on UH-1D Slicks, UH-1C Gunships, CH-47 Chinooks. O-1 Bird Dogs as an Observer, three missions as a crewmember on the AC-47 Spooky kicking flares out the cargo door. I have a few night missions on Navy PBRs out of Binh Thuy. I have flown around the tip of the Delta up to as far North as Quang Tri and Dong Ha.

Title: The Midnight Mile
Author: Denis W. Flood
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 159571393X/a>

When Marine Corporal Jackie Carroll's body comes home from Vietnam, the family and townspeople of Peekskill, New York, try to cope with the loss of a son and star athlete. The author captures the spirit of a town filled with quirky and endearing characters whose animosities and friendships bring about an unexpected celebration. A fast moving story that both charms and disarms. The Midnight Mile is a vibrant tale with a surprise ending that will move the reader to tears.

Title: Grumman F9F Panther/Cougar
Author: Brad Elway
Genre: Non-Fiction, Reference
Reviewer: jim greenwald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1580071457

By the end of World War II, piston-powered fighters were at their absolute zenith. As good as those airplanes were, America's aviation industry found itself starting over in the Jet Age with new airplanes powered by anemic and somewhat cantankerous turbine engines. More importantly, just as these new aircraft were maturing, they were thrust into war in the skies over Korea. Grumman's first jets were potent aircraft in their own right, but also proved to be the building blocks from which two more famous Grumman 'cats' were born -- the supersonic F11F Tiger and swing-wing Mach 2 F-14 Tomcat.

Grumman F9F Panther/Cougar tells the story of the pivotal F9F Panther from its initial concept through early design and manufacturing, flight test, aircraft carrier trials, and combat operations in the Korean War. Completing this story is coverage of the more advanced swept-wing transonic Cougar that goes on to become an effective trainer and photo-recon aircraft as well. Detailed appendices provide the reader with complete data on F9F production numbers, carrier deployments, and squadron histories.