Air Force War

On February 15, 1991, Captain Steve Phillis was leading his wingman, Lieutenant Rob Sweet, on their 30th combat mission of Desert Storm flying the A-10 Warthog. They were tasked with attacking Iraq's vaunted Medina Division of the Republican Guards - by far their most dangerous mission of the war. Near the end of their attacks, Rob was forced to eject from his aircraft and began a five-minute parachute ride down to the troops he and Steve had just finished bombing. Steve immediately sprang into action to save the life of his wingman.

Stories of service in the Australian Air Force, 1942-52. This book is the story of a father and son from Newcastle, New South Wales. Edward Norman ‘Ted’ Murray and his son, George Arthur Murray, both elected to serve in Australia’s Air Force. Ted served in the Air Force during World War II from 1942-45. The context of his service was the switch in priority from the Empire Air Training Scheme to working with the United States to win the war in the Pacific. He joined in search of adventure. He trained diligently to become a Flight Engineer and served in the Northern Territory, New South...

Less than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Army formed its first air force designated to operate overseas, the Eighth. Within four months they had set up base in England. Three months later they were bombing German targets in occupied Europe. The Eighth was the first bomber command on either side to commit to strategic daylight bombing. It was a major change in tactics - and the men of the Eighth paid the price in both lives and blood.

On America's newest combat base, U.S. Air Force aerial warfare expert Major General Patrick McLanahan and his crew of daring engineers are devising the air combat unit of the future. Known as Air Battle Force, it can launch concentrated, stealthy, precision-guided firepower to any spot on the globe within hours. And soon McLanahan and his warriors will have their first target.

Embark on an extraordinary journey through the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) as Chief Master Sergeant (Retired) Bob Vásquez, opens his heart and shares a collection of poignant stories. This captivating book is intended to inform, inspire, and ignite introspection for USAFA Grads, USAFA Staff, parents, and family members alike. Picture yourself sitting with Chief, savoring a cup of coffee at Arnold Hall or strolling across the iconic Terrazzo, as he masterfully recounts unforgettable anecdotes. With every turn of the page, readers are beckoned to reflect on their own ...

A few years after his release from a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp, in 1973, Colonel Joseph Kittinger retired from the Air Force. Restless and unchallenged, he turned to ballooning, a lifelong passion as well as a constant diversion for his imagination during his imprisonment. His primary goal was a solitary circumnavigation of the globe, and in its pursuit he set several ballooning distance records, including the first solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1984. But the aeronautical feats that first made him an American hero had occurred a quarter of a century earlier....

This is the second book of the Distant Traveler Trilogy and continues the story of the McClure family and their service to the United States as officers in the US Air Force. This book gives insight into events that shaped the grandson, James "Mac" McClure and the positive and negative impact of growing up raised by his grandparents while his father flew fighter aircraft all over the world.

Mark chose to enlist in the Air Force as a Special Operations Combat Controller after he received his Bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama. Because of his above average grades and near-photographic memory, his Business Finance degree would have done him well. But, he felt a higher calling; one that put him between us and the enemies bent on our destruction.

The Battle of Britain rages. London is in flames, and civilization itself totters on the brink. Does Pilot Officer Maurice Mickelwhite care? Not one damn. He may be one of the better fighter pilots in the Royal Air Force, but it's not by choice. Maurice is a mathematical genius, who, if not for Hitler, would be happily teaching algebra and calculus at university. To hell with the war! Maurice just wants his numbers. Trouble is...the numbers also want him.

When Ian Fritz joined the Air Force at eighteen, he did so out of necessity. He hadn’t been accepted into colleges thanks to an indifferent high school career. He’d too often slept through his classes as he worked long hours at a Chinese restaurant to help pay the bills for his trailer-dwelling family in Lake City, Florida. But the Air Force recognizes his potential and sends him to the elite Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, to learn Dari and Pashto, the main languages of Afghanistan.

This is a story of an air force pilot who was assigned with the job of attacking the enemy territory to destroy their war potential. He did the job well, but while returning the tail of the plane was hit and he was compelled to bail out. From the jungle where he landed, he was caught by the enemies, but his presence of mind made him escape. With continuous struggles, he could cross over the border and had to face numerous problems before joining the family.

Airplanes are created to fly, not to hang down from a ceiling in museums or rust in hangars. This statement is especially true, when it comes to the U-2 spy plane, a.k.a. “Dragon Lady”. This relict of the Cold War is still in operation after more than fifty years since its first flight in 1955. Designed for high flight the U-2 is at home at an altitude of more than 70,000 feet. At an altitude so high, land under the plane does not appear to be flat anymore. A pilot can see the curvature of the surface of the Earth. It is like being on a spaceship with one exception. Gravity is still ...

Follow my lead, Flyboy… Captain Stephanie ‘Piranha’ Ely had fought for every commendation and honor that she’d received her entire life – and wasn’t about to let anyone take that from her. She volunteered for this assignment, knowing it would guarantee a spot in command and had no clue just how much resolve it was actually going to take – especially when it came to Scarecrow. Copy that – I’m on your tail… Joey ‘Scarecrow’ Charlton didn’t have a care in the world. No commitments, no strings attached back home, and zero drive to do anything else. Eat, sleep, and fly...

The year is 1987. The Cold War is thawing. NATO and the Warsaw Pact still face-off across the Inner German Border but there are unmistakable signs that change is inevitable. As world leaders wrestle with a new political reality, sinister forces are set in play which might destabilise the embryonic peace process. Terrorist groups, bent on undermining democracy are bolstered by improbable collaborators and seek out new targets, determined to wreak havoc. As events unfold at breakneck speed across Europe, only a small force of British Phantom fighter jets holding Quick Reaction Alert, stand ...

There were no mission limits for a pilot in the Pacific during World War II; unlike in Europe, you flew until it was time to go home. So it was for James "Jug" Curran, all the way from New Guinea to the Philippines with the 348th Fighter Group, the first P-47 Thunderbolt outfit in the Pacific. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Curran volunteered to try flying in the blue yonder and trained as an Army fighter pilot. He got his wish to fly the P-47 in the Pacific, going into combat in August 1943, in New Guinea, and later helping start the "Black Rams" fighter squadron.

June 1976 – beer is 32p a pint, Abba are topping the charts, and Britain is on the cusp of what will turn out to be its most glorious summer on record. As the temperature soars, a working-class boy from the English Midlands and a vivacious exchange student from the United States arrive on a holiday island, determined to seek out good times, adventure and romance. What neither youngster can foresee is that before that long, hot summer has drawn to a close their carefree weeks of fun in the sun will be overtaken by the discovery of dark secrets from the past.

'It kept me amused, entertained and interested right to the end.' A flight with the Red Arrows sparks in Ron Powell a desire to tell the story of his early life and 32-years in the Royal Air Force, from engineering apprentice to group captain (full colonel) pilot. The result is Shropshire Blue: A Shropshire Lad in the RAF. This first volume opens with Ron growing up in a small town on the English/Welsh border, where his interest in the RAF is sparked by a headstone in a local cemetery. Having failed pilot selection, he joins the RAF as a Halton apprentice, learning to became an airframe and...

You don't have to be killed in action to be a casualty of war. Medics Paul Adams and Lizzie Jarman are one of the most welcome sights to injured soldiers in the war-torn poppy fields of Afghanistan. With red crosses on their arms and medical equipment strapped to their backs, they thunder into battle in a Chinook helicopter – straight into areas everyone else is desperate to get away from. In the middle of the fiercest fighting British troops have seen since the Falklands War, the medics are the last defence from death on the ground in some corner of a foreign field. But in Afghanistan, ...

John Humphreys was just a boy soldier in the Royal Engineers when war was declared in 1939. By the war's end he had jumped into Arnhem with the Parachute Regiment to spearhead the attack on the bridge. For days Humphreys and the rest of his squad held on, outnumbered and outgunned by the German army fighting to the last bullet and refusing to surrender. But the Bridge Too Far is only the climax of Humphreys’ remarkable war. Twice captured as a prisoner of war, he twice escaped from the enemy to make his way back to Allied lines in order to rejoin the fight.

Ever since the Vietnam War, if not World War II, the acquisition process for new goods or services used by the U.S. Armed Forces has been the same. It has involved as much paperwork, and taken as long, to acquire a new software program as it takes to acquire a new aircraft carrier. A service's needs were more likely than not to change between the time the bids were let and the date upon which the product was delivered. This process may not have drastically changed the configuration of the aircraft carrier, but in the realm of software the specifications and need for output can change by the...