Document created: 1 December 03
Air & Space Power Journal - Winter 2003

The Iran-Iraq War, 1980–1988 by Efraim Karsh. Osprey Publishing Ltd. (http://www.osprey publishing.com/titles/1841763713), Elms Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP, United Kingdom, 2002, 96 pages, $14.95 (softcover).

Efraim Karsh analyzes the bloody eight-year conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Ba’thist Iraq in fewer than 100 very readable pages filled with excellent campaign maps and photos. The revolution of 1979 that swept the Shah of Iran from power sparked tensions between Iran and Iraq that ultimately led to war. Ayatollah Khomeini appealed to “true” Muslims to overthrow corrupt regional governments, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq became the self-styled Imam’s first target. Saddam discovered that starting a war to secure access to the Gulf proved more difficult than ending it. Iraqi aggression gave the Iranian regime the means to sustain revolutionary and patriotic fervor—Iran re-fused Iraqi appeals for peace for eight years, de-spite terrible human and economic costs. Fearing Tehran’s radical Islamist doctrine, Middle Eastern states and major Western powers supported Iraq.

Consequently, Iran grew progressively weaker while Iraq enjoyed dramatic, but illusory, military growth and foreign investment. The war ended in August 1988, when both nations accepted UN Resolution 598. Iran remained isolated and bitter; Iraqi leaders realized that the war’s mortgage would weaken their country for decades. Three years later, Saddam again tried (and failed) to solve his country’s economic and security challenges by using military force. The Iran-Iraq War, 1980–1988, part of the Osprey Essential Histories series, is an excellent source for undergraduate courses in history or political science; it would also serve as a good introductory reader for recent Middle Eastern strategic studies.

Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters and Their Fateful Flight into Hurricane Janet by David Toomey. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. (http:// www.wwnorton.com), 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10110, 2002, 224 pages, $25.95 (hardcover).

Because of the number of variables at play and the effects of so many other unknowns, the study of weather is an imperfect science. Determining storm tracks and predicting the occurrence of severe weather or even rain at a specific place and time five days out can be an immense challenge. One can imagine the task facing hurricane fore-casters in the early and mid-1950s, working without the benefit of advanced computers and satellite imagery; nevertheless, the American public depended upon them for timely and accurate warnings of impending, destructive weather. They might as well have tried scaling Mount Everest using just toothpicks for climbing gear.

The men of the US Air Force and Navy—the Hurricane Hunters—served as the eyes and ears of the National Hurricane Center. Toomey tells the story of one particular Navy Hurricane Hunter crew that flew into Hurricane Janet in 1955—and did not return. He combines this tale with a history of meteorology as it relates to the development of the art and science of forecasting, as well as a history (up until 1955) of “storm chasing,” which evolved from a wager during World War II.

One finds similarities between Stormchasers and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men against the Sea. Both recount the drama of facing extreme weather events. Both fold in the art and science of weather, speculations about what might have happened in the final minutes of the main characters’ lives, and facts about what happened to the people left behind. And both de-scribe fearsome storms!

Toomey goes to great lengths to explain the development of weather prediction from its infancy with early “meteorologists,” whose ideas included basic models of hurricanes, the foundation for numeric weather prediction, and even the impetus to employ early computers in such prediction—which went far beyond “weather guessing.” The reader gains valuable insight into just how inexact a science weather forecasting was, only 45 years ago. The discussion about methods of “working a hurricane” also helps one better understand how USAF Hurricane Hunter crews do their job.

Toomey’s subjects will satisfy the curiosity of a variety of readers: those looking for a story about perilous events, an introductory history of tropical meteorology, or a primer on concepts of forecasting that were 100 years ahead of their time. Storm-chasers delivers on all counts.

Maj Paul G. Niesen, USAF
Maxwell AFB, Alabama

The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfare by Michael Russell Rip and James M. Hasik. Naval Institute Press (http:// www.usni.org/usni.html), 2062 Generals High-way, Annapolis, Maryland 21401-6780, 2002, 448 pages, $48.95.

From the outset, the authors emphasize the technological importance of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which enabled cruise missiles to hit their targets with accuracy and gave US armored forces the ability to navigate the featureless terrain during Operation Desert Storm. They also largely succeed in making this sort of complex technology more understandable, explaining the system’s processes for measuring time and distances and determining a position in three dimensions. Chapters also delve into specific systems that make use of GPS, such as the joint direct attack munition (JDAM), which delivers 2,000 pounds of explosives with great accuracy. Such increased accuracy and miniaturization of munitions technology make the dumping of thousands of tons of dumb bombs, as occurred during the Vietnam War, both unnecessary and obsolete. Rip and Hasik also consider the advantages and limitations of precision missiles and military technology in the Yugoslavia campaign as well as the war on terrorism, arguing that such weaponry is not a panacea for transnational terrorists that operate in the hills of Afghanistan and that we must gather accurate intelligence on the ground before we deploy such systems. They also offer a look into little-known innovations, such as precision artillery shells for howitzers developed for the US Army. In sum, The Precision Revolution is an excellent book for readers involved with munitions, navigation, and advanced air and space systems.

Lt Comdr Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, MSC, USN
Washington, D.C.

The Hostile Sky: A Hellcat Flyer in the Pacific by James W. Vernon. Naval Institute Press (http:// www.usni.org/press/booksearch.htm), 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, Maryland 21402, 2002, 176 pages, $28.95 (hardcover).

A half century has gone by, and one must wonder whether America is as resilient as it was in the days of James W. Vernon, a teenaged naval aviator in the midst of the chaos of World War II. Born in Minnesota, living his life in the West, and emerging from a family breaking up at the onset of World War II, he nonetheless was able to survive and even prosper in the face of changes that would shake the equanimity of many modern Americans.

Vernon, who had a couple of years of college under his belt when he started with the Navy at a school of mines, uses a fine writing style that he acquired somewhere along the pike to recount his experiences—for example, the dazzling rapidity of change. Frequently shifted from training locations in California, to Texas, to Florida, and back to California, he managed to survive. He also made his way through radically different training in Daunt-less dive-bombers, checking out in the SB2C Curtiss Helldiver and then in the Hellcat itself. To be sure, the world was simpler then. Changing from one type of aircraft to another seemed not to require any transition at all—pilots moved from dive-bomber to fighter merely by sitting in the cockpit for a spell and then taking off to learn by doing. And they did so in one of the most dangerous of flying environments—the deck of an aircraft carrier. Vernon then went on with blazing speed to fly the F-6F in fighter-bomber operations during the closing phases of the war in the Pacific, when the kamikazes were at their zenith. Little wonder that so many young men did not survive—but Vernon did to go on to an impressive postwar career as a geologist.

I suppose that one might classify The Hostile Skyas another war memoir—an adventure story, pure and simple. Vernon, however, covers much more than the operational dimension. Grieving for lost shipmates was an everyday routine then, and he is candid about that experience, as well as about off-duty cavorting in a world that offered little assurance of a future. Vernon’s book is an engaging read for an evening, and I recommend it on that basis.

Dr. David R. Mets
Maxwell AFB, Alabama

North American XB-70A Valkyrie, vol. 34, Warbird Tech series, by Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony Landis. Specialty Press (http://www.specialty press.com), 39966 Grand Avenue, North Branch, Minnesota 55056, 2002, 104 pages, $16.95 (soft-cover).

North American XB-70A Valkyrie, one of the latest entries in Specialty Press’s Warbird Tech series, thoroughly covers an aircraft that will forever re-main impressive. More than three decades after its final flight, visitors to the US Air Force Museum are still awed by the sleek craft’s magnificent lines and its ability to fly at three times the speed of sound. Jenkins and Landis cover their subject from initial concepts, through program development, to several years of flight-testing. Additionally, this very well illustrated book devotes ample space to technical aspects of the XB-70’s design.

The first portion pays considerable attention to the aircraft’s conception and difficult development history throughout the 1950s. Jenkins and Landis cite the political, economic, and strategic reasons for the bomber program’s demise and its ultimate incarnation as a high-speed experimental aircraft, emphasizing the then-prevalent view that inter-continental ballistic missiles would replace manned bombers. However, they scarcely mention the changes in tactical employment—from high to low altitude, demanded by the advancement of surface-to-air missiles—that doomed the B-70 as a bomber.

Flying for the first time in September 1964, the XB-70 lasted fewer than five years and logged just over 250 total hours—mostly in testing and later researching the practicality of supersonic flight by large aircraft, including duty as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration test subject for an American supersonic transport. Surprisingly few pages (and no new photographs) in the book are devoted to the dramatic and tragic midair collision of 1966 that claimed the second of the two aircraft built. Furthermore, although this volume offers a wealth of photographs, drawings, and data, it scrimps on personal accounts.

North American XB-70A Valkyrie should prove popular with readers interested in X-planes, high-speed flight, or simply the evolution and experimentation that occurred during America’s quest for the ultimate Cold War bomber. Oddly, publications about the XB-70 remain scarce despite the public’s fascination with the aircraft. Jenkins and Landis fill a void in the literature with this comprehensive look at the Mach 3+ XB-70A Valkyrie.

Col John S. Chilstrom, USAF
New Orleans, Louisiana

The First World War: The Western Front, 1914–1916 by Peter Simkins. Osprey Publishing (http:// www.ospreypublishing.com), Elms Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP, 2002, 95 pages, $14.95.

This book, number 14 in Osprey Publishing’s Essential Histories series, is the first of two volumes on the western front in World War I. The author, Peter Simkins, is a historian and professor with nearly 40 years’ experience at England’s Imperial War Museum and the University of Birmingham. The editor, Prof. Robert O’Neill, is an equally qualified historian, author, and educator.

This short volume will prove useful to anyone unfamiliar with World War I. It leads off with a chronology that provides an easy reference for major events of the period, from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 to Gen Robert Nivelle’s replacement of Gen Joseph Joffre as French commander in chief on 12 December 1916. Simkins then discusses the background, the warring sides, the outbreak of the conflict, and the fighting itself. Other sections paint pictures of the war’s three critical elements— soldiers, civilians, and the home front. The stories of Pvt Archie Surfleet and Winnifred Adair Roberts serve as composites of the typical experiences of soldiers and civilians.

Although this volume does not reach the level of serious historical scholarship, it suffices as an introduction to issues pertinent to the Great War. From this brief overview of the people, politics, and events of the first two years of the war, readers desiring more information and deeper under-standing can move on to more in-depth histories. In addition to the engaging narrative, the book offers numerous photographs—including images of every major leader in the war as well as action photos that graphically depict the brutality of trench warfare—and maps that illustrate the significant battles and troop movements.

Unfortunately, Simkins does not adequately ad-dress the war in the air, making only a few scant references to aerial reconnaissance. That deficiency aside, The First World War: The Western Front, 1914–1916 is a valuable primer on “the war to end all wars.”

Command Sgt Major James H. Clifford, USA
Fort Gillem, Georgia

F-117 Nighthawk, Combat Legends, by Paul F. Crick-more. Crowood Press (http://www.crowood press.co.uk/780/index.asp), The Stable Block, Crowood Lane, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wilt-shire SN8, 2HR, England, 2003, 96 pages, $14.95 (softcover).

One of the newest entries in Airlife Publishing’s (recently acquired by Crowood Press) Combat Leg-ends series, F-117 Nighthawk devotes a significant number of pages—almost half—to the airplane’s development and early operational periods. This portion and the one on the stealth fighter’s performance during Operation Desert Storm make up 75 percent of the total text—information that is readily available in other publications. Admittedly, the fact that much of the F-117’s recent history has not yet been released accounts for the book’s emphasis on past performance. Crickmore does briefly discuss the post–Desert Storm period, including the three aircraft lost in the 1990s—although the appendix containing the tail-number histories includes up-dated data on only one of those F-117s.

In addition to the lack of new information, the book can be tiring to read at times. Some passages are very well written, but much of the text seems choppy, with long, clumsy phrasing and curious punctuation. The author’s use of “1-17,” for ex-ample, as an abbreviation for the plane’s designation (possibly a Briticism) seems rather quirky. I found these practices both annoying and distracting.

Although some aspects of F-117 Nighthawk are appealing, particularly its selection of photo-graphs, I can’t recommend it over other books on the stealth aircraft—at least not in its present form. It would benefit from more meticulous editing.

Capt Louis Wessels, USAF
Maxwell AFB, Alabama

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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