America's Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project CONSTANT PEG (General Military)

America's Secret MiG Squadron is about 60% book, 40% collection of first hand accounts. The accounts themselves make up useful fodder for any future endeavor to capture what was a very close secret in the history of the Cold War. In that respect the book is useful to reference, but as a reader it is difficult to get through. The author uses about the first third of the book to capture his own perspective, but that portion showed a good level of research to go along with it. Once that wraps up, the rest of the book is transcribed memories from key members of the Constant Peg team and the squadron that followed. Each of those narratives is organized by role (squadron commander, pilot, maintainer) and sequentially. It makes for a lot of repeated stories, some which contradict, and the narratives are written almost as transcriptions, so the tone, tense, and pace shift throughout the last two-thirds of the book. This book, and the similarly themed and repetitive "Red Eagles" by Steve Davies, work to keep alive the memories of an important secret program, and in that role they succeed, but both books struggle to get a coherent voice or paint a full picture of what it took to achieve what these men and women did in complete secrecy.

I enjoyed Gail's book even though it was hard to follow at times and I say this because I am a friend of his. It cleared the air of when he got fired because of Hugh Brown's fatal accident having been there when it happened. The bottom line was that Gail got screwed, but I didn't find that out until the last third of the book and initially was disappointed when he covered it earlier in the book about being relieved of command and the reason that my roommate Gerald D. "Huffer" Huff and I, Robert E. "Darth" Drabant (It was while I was in the Red Eagle that I got my "call sign") both went on to do different things. Huffer got out of the service and I moved on to other projects in the Air Force, notably F-117A Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) and finally as the Special Assistant to the Director of Operations of the operational unit, the 4450th Tactical Group. Gail does elude to the success of this program was due to the maintainers and I can also attest to that. Those who followed us should write and/or publish their experiences also since like one of them said, a lot transpired over the next 9 years before the program was terminated.

This shows the inside view of those especially fortunate and challenged that make great advances in unique military operations - the ones that are "outside the box". It also provides some insight into how talented and skilled subordinates also often worked to get the seemingly impossible tasks and missions accomplished, despite the rigidity of their superior officers and a highly "political" and often inflexible command structure.A book of greatest interest to military aviation-experienced readers, that are able to identify-with and comprehend the intense-jargon, acronyms, and unit designations.--Chuck Miller, Lt. Col., USAF (Ret); Chief Instructor Pilot, KC135Q (SR-71 Inflight Refueling); NATO Exchange Instructor Pilot for developing Inflight Refueling capability with the modified Boeing 707 for the Canadian Armed Forces; and C/KC-135 Weapon System Manager (Structural Integrity Manager, KC-135E Re-engining creator, Mid-life C- & KC-135 upgrade manager, and overall technical and logistics management responsibilities for a $1 Billion annual fleet logistics budget).

The book greatly unveil the US MiG operations as real adversaries in training. It renders a lot of deserved compliments to the maintenance personnel in order to keep them flying and without any formal support (manuals, suppliers, etc). Also the supporters of this great project are not forgotten.One must already know: MiG-21 are "emulated" by F-5E and MiG-17 by A-4. This book tells who should be the best to perform as the MiG-23.The weakness of strengths of US and russian/soviet fighters are well shown comparatively. Also, how the USAF evolved its fighter doctrine post-Vietnam was. A good book also, but in a more strategic approach dealing with this subject is "Every man a tiger"The book could deal a lit bit more about the dogfights using the MiGs and also, when (if it was the case) they "loose" the engagement and why (I recall just one "lost" engagement)

Although I worked for the Naval Safety Center as a writer for a bit in the '70s, I don't fly planes and I'm not in the military; nevertheless, I appreciated this up-close and personal account of the people behind the secret program that transformed US pilot training. To me, this account goes beyond the story of the secret MiG squadron: It's an in-depth look at how the military works.Highlights for me were the description of how they operate in the Pentagon, the stories of the persistence and ingenuity of the (usually unsung, but not here) maintenance crews,and the detailed description of what it feels like to fly a jet. Colonel Peck's account is clearly from his own experience, but he thoughtfully includes the voices of others to expand the story. Did I get lost in the acronyms? Sometimes (though there's a glossary I could have consulted). But I did not get frustrated by this author's voice as some other reviewers. I recognized it as one of the most authentic notes in the book: this is how military people really speak: measured in tone, understated and indirect due to diplomacy, and often self-deprecating (though this last is less common in fighter pilots in my experience).I recommend this book even if you are not connected to the military. If it touches you like it did me, you will come away with even more admiration for the very human heroes who serve and protect us all.

Great book about the details of Mig use at Tonopah and how they were used to teach US pilots about tactical fight against soviet plane. A lot of personal stories. Check out also Red Eagles by Steve Davies.

The Photos!!!! F-14 with MiG-23! Ein unbekanntes Thema auch auf englisch leicht verständlich dargestellt. Unwahrscheinlich - was die Amis für einen Aufwand getrieben haben.

i was hoping that this book would have been so much more. I was hoping it would explain how the MiGs got into the USA, what they were like to fly, how they fared against US aircraft.Instead it tends to just explain who the poeple were that the author worked with. Not as interesting as it could have been.

Nessun dato tecnico, solo qualche racconto da bar. Libro senza pretese, oltretutto solo in inglese, che tratta dei confronti addestrativi tra Mig21 e Phantom. Gli altri aerei citati sono SOLO appena menzionati. Al mig23 (aereo prodotto in 5000 esemplari) è dedicata solo una paginetta.