Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | FICTION CAR | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Offering an insider's glimpse of modern-day Naval aviation, this debut novel chronicles the lives and fortunes of a group of Naval aviators as they deal with their dangerous mission to maintain peace in an unstable Middle East.
Author Notes
Ward Carroll, a commander in the U.S. Navy with fifteen years of experience in F-14 Tomcats, teaches English & Ethics at the Naval Academy. A consultant to Hollywood on such films as "The Hunt for Red October" & "Flight of the Intruder", he frequently writes for magazines as varied as "Golf World", "Hits", & "Proceedings".
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
With suspense, drama and action as hot as a fighter jet's afterburner, Carroll's account of modern naval aviation reads like Top Gun on steroids. The formula of jet pilots in conflict with superior officers and enemy MiGs will delight the military-techno audience. After a slow start, frenzy and danger aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf provide the backdrop for this tale of swaggering aviators who live on the edge, confounding senior officers and enticing Iranian and Iraqi fighters to come up and swap air-to-air missiles before the six-month deployment is over. Punk is a navy lieutenant, pilot of an F-14 Tomcat a savvy flier with the physical and moral courage to do what is right no matter what the consequences. Soup Campbell is Punk's squadron commander, a glory-hunting egotist who cares only about looking good to his superiors and getting that next promotion. Punk and his squadron-mates fly, gripe, party and do everything possible to stay alive despite their commander's backstabbing incompetence. Aerial dogfights, nighttime in-flight emergencies, downed aircraft, pilots captured and rescued, court-martial and some nifty flying sequences keep up the pace as Punk slowly realizes that duty and patriotism may not be enough to justify strapping himself into a 32-ton jet on a two-second catapult. Loaded with testosterone and military jargon, Carroll's debut speaks volumes about military careerism, aviation technology, naval operations in harm's way and the men who fly and fight for a living. (June) FYI: Carroll is a navy officer with 15 years experience flying the F-14 Tomcat, and served as a consultant on the film version of The Hunt for Red October. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Naval Institute Press' last foray into fiction brought readers Tom Clancy's archetypal technothriller, The Hunt for Red October (1984). Carroll's first novel won't make him rich enough to consider buying a pro football team, but in some respects, it's a better book, for it's a thoughtful rumination on the ethics of war fighters and the notions of duty, loyalty, and honor that may be tested by inept superiors, intractable bureaucracies, or politics that may be global--or as local as an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. Unlike in Red October, the machines of war aren't the stars: Punk Reichert and his fellow F-14 pilots are. In this, Clancy had it better. Carroll's aircraft carrier and its chain of command are so numbingly complicated readers will lose track of who salutes whom and whose negligence is putting Punk needlessly in harm's way. Also, Punk and his comrades are simply too numerous to be fully developed. Those caveats aside, though, this is a compelling picture of the harsh realities of professional life for some of the most intelligent, able, and courageous young people in our society. --Thomas Gaughan
Kirkus Review
A rousing debut tale about the jet-flying set in which heroism, high-tech expertise, and a warts-and-all look at the Navy get equal measure. Its that uneasy period postDesert Stormthe US (under the UN banner) and Iraq continuing to view each other gimlet-eyed. Lieutenant Rick Reichert (Punk affectionately), an F-14 Tomcat pilot, is stationed in the northern Arabian Gulf, on the three-billion-dollar carrier ArrowslingerThe Boat in Navy parlance. And hes disenchanted. He hates being separated from the woman he loves, particularly since hes begun to sense that her willingness to play Penelope to his Ulysses is on the wane, distance taking its toll. Also, he distrusts and despises his Queeg-like skipper, Commander Soup Campbell, whose ambition is boundless and whose path to promotion is littered with the outmaneuvered, the exploited, and the more deserving. What Punk loves is the flying, and the fliersthe good people in his squadronthough embarrassing words to that effect would never cross his 25-year-old lips. After months of unproductive wariness and enervating stalemate, theres suddenly an incident. Iraqi jets are in the sky, in the no-fly zone, and Punk and his squadron-mates are ordered to confront them. Sensing an opportunity for glorythe kind of grandstanding hes become famous forCommander Campbell preempts one of the junior pilots, disrupting the orderliness and efficiency of the mission. Once aloft, he quickly compounds his ineptitude, crashing his plane and almost causing the death of the RIO (radio intercept officer) flying with him. Punk, on the other hand, performs valiantly, but in one of those painful ironies that Carroll clearly regrets and just as clearly appreciates, Campbells career turns out to be disaster-proof. Written by a man who spent 15 years flying Tomcats, and who has also served as a consultant on such films as The Hunt for Red October: a convincing, often amusing, surprisingly unflinching account of those who go up in the air in ships.
Library Journal Review
The awful title aside, this first novel by former navy pilot Carroll is an exciting tale of a young lieutenant's tour of duty as a fighter pilot on an aircraft carrier stationed near Iraq. "Punk" is the main character's peer-assigned nickname. He and his shipmates endure fear, incompetence, boredom, on-ship politics, bacchanalian shore leaves, and danger from officers as much as from foreign enemies. An intriguing look at the modern military, this novel honors the men and women who serve while helping to explain why so many decline to re-enlist. In a shrinking military, personnel are forced to endure assignments and commitments that are exhausting and unrewarding. Although heavily laced with military terminology and a cast whose nicknames are sometimes confusing, this is a fast and worthwhile debut. For all general libraries. Robert Conroy, Warren, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
