Book Review: 'Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing (The Tom Clancy Military Library)'

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(C) 1995 Berkley Books
Before his untimely death on October 1, 2013, the late Tom Clancy wrote 16 best-selling novels which focus on many aspects of America's national security community. Starting with his now-classic The Hunt for Red October (1984) and continuing all the way to his final Jack Ryan novel (2013's Command Authority), Clancy's cast of characters included soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and special operations troops, not to mention a certain CIA analyst who eventually becomes President of the United States. All of these books - including Red Storm Rising, one of only two novels that are not set in Clancy's "Ryanverse" - are not only successful because they tell great stories, but also because they are the result of a lot of research and Clancy's ability to network with many people in the military and other branches of government.

In addition to his works of fiction, Clancy wrote a seven-book series of non-fiction books intended to give readers a closer look at the various military units he depicted in his novels. Known collectively now as The Tom Clancy Military Library, these non-fiction works are also referred to as the Guided Tour series because each book has the subtitle "A Guided Tour of a [specific military unit here]."

The series began with the 1993 publication of Submarine: A Guided Tour of a Nuclear Warship. In that volume, Clancy and researcher/co-author John D. Gresham explored the ins and outs of submarine warfare in the late 20th Century and gave readers - ahem - a guided tour of not one but two nuclear attack submarines: the Improved Los Angeles-class sub, USS Miami (SSN 755) and the Trafalgar-class HMS Triumph (S93). Updated in 2001, Submarine was the template on which the rest of the series was based.

The next book, Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment, covered modern armored warfare, a topic which I was somewhat familiar with because I'd owned MicroProse Software's M1 Tank Platoon: The Definitive Simulation of Armored Combat. Clancy and Gresham's book is - naturally - more authoritative and in-depth, and it featured several fascinating interviews with Army officers known for their valor and skill as armored unit commanders, including then-Major (promotable) H.R. McMaster, who is best-known today as President Donald Trump's second National Security Adviser.

In November of 1995, Berkley Books and Jack Ryan Limited Partnership published Book Three in the Guided Tour series: Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing. 

 The #1 New York Times bestselling master of the military genre puts readers right in the cockpit. 

 Tom Clancy’s explorations of America’s armed forces reveal exclusive, never-before-seen information on the people and technology that protect our nation. Here, the acclaimed author takes to the skies with the U.S. Air Force’s elite: the Fighter Wing. 
With his compelling style and unerring eye for detail, Clancy captures the thrill of takeoff, the drama of the dogfight, and the relentless dangers our fighter pilots face every day of their lives- showing readers what it really means to be the best of the best. This is the ultimate insider’s look at an Air Force combat wing-the planes, the technology, and the people…with Tom Clancy behind the stick. - from the publisher's website

The first edition of Fighter Wing (an updated edition was published on September 7, 2007) showcases a "guided tour" of the U.S. Air Force's 366th Composite Wing, one of the first units to be reorganized in the 1990s as part of the service's "Great Merger" of 1992. Prior to that year, the Air Force's combat elements had been assigned to two separate commands; bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons, including B-52s, B-1B Lancers, and FB-111s, plus their supporting tankers and other aircraft, belonged to the Strategic Air Command. Fighters and fighter-bombers (F-15Cs, F-15Es, F-16s, and A-10s) and their support aircraft were assigned to the Tactical Air Command.

In its 318 pages (I'm not counting the bibliography or the index), Fighter Wing includes:

  • Detailed analyses of the Air Force's premier fighter planes, including the F-15 Eagle
  • Exclusive photographs, illustrations, and diagrams
  • An insider's look at the people behind the planes and weapons
  • Combat strategies and training techniques used by the U.S. Air Force
Plus: A foreword by General Michael Loh, USAF (Ret.), 1st Commander, U.S. Air Force, Air Combat Command - back cover blurb, Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing

My Take

If you are a regular reader of A Certain Point of View, you know that I have a strong affinity for the armed services of the United States of America. As a kid, I wanted to join the Air Force, an endeavor that was made moot by my disability, and even though I came down to Earth and chose writing as my profession, I'm still fascinated by all things military.  That's why I bought and read most of Tom Clancy's books (novels and nonfiction), even though my political views skew to the liberal side and Mr. Clancy's were steadfastly conservative.

I bought Fighter Wing at the Waldenbooks store in the Miami International Mall soon after it was published in 1995 and I read it, as I often did in those days, fairly quickly; it took me about a week to go through the book from cover-to-cover. 

Since I had owned (and played) various computer games based on the F-15E Strike Eagle (including MicroProse's F-15 Strike Eagle III), I was familiar with some of the concepts Clancy and his researcher/co-author John D. Gresham discuss within the pages of Fighter Wing. The chapter in which Clancy explains the "four forces of flight" (thrust, lift, drag, and weight) could have been drawn directly from the User's Manual of F-15 Strike Eagle III.  In addition, what was then called the 366h Composite Wing had a squadron of F-15Es (the 391st Fighter Squadron, aka the Bold Tigers), a unit that operated the same type of aircraft featured in my favorite flight sim. (When the book came out, I had a newish PC with a CD-ROM drive but no 5.25-inch floppy drive, so I could not install F-15 Strike Eagle III on it.) I loved reading the chapter on the Strike Eagle, even though it made me miss my old flight sim a lot. 

Fighter Wing covers a wide array of topics, though. In addition to the chapters about the 366th Composite Wing (which was reorganized in 2002 as a Fighter Wing as part of the Bush Administration's reorganization of the defense and intelligence community), there are:

  • Interviews with Col. John Warden and Gen. Charles ("Chuck") Horner, USAF, both of whom were instrumental in devising and executing the air campaign during Operation Desert Storm
  • A seminar on Aviation 101
  • A look at Air Combat Command (the chapter is subtitled "Not Your Father's Air Force")
  • Chapters on (then) future combat Air Force aircraft that were scheduled to enter service at the turn of the century, including the F-22 (which in 1995 had not yet been given the name "Raptor") 
  • Chapters on the various units and aircraft assigned to the 366th Composite Wing
  • A "roles and missions" fictional scenario in which Clancy illustrates how a Composite Wing would be employed in a Major Regional Conflict in a (then) near future (Vietnam in 2000)
As an Air Force pilot "wannabe" and follower of military topics, I really enjoy reading Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing. Sure, my edition is the original 1995 one and is badly outdated; the 366th Fighter Wing is still based at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, but it is no longer a Composite Wing made of several different "type" squadrons. In 2002, the Wing lost its bombers and tankers; gradually, the other fighter aircraft (F-15Cs and F-16 Fighting Falcons) were also reassigned to other units in a money-saving move; as of September 2010, the 366th has been a Strike Eagle unit, not too different from the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing depicted in F-15 Strike Eagle III. 

As with most of Clancy's works, Fighter Wing is a good read. It is informative and entertaining, and it is lavishly illustrated, too. Co-author John D. Gresham (he uses his middle initial to avoid being confused with the other, more famous John Gresham) provided many of the behind-the-scenes photos in the book, though there are a lot of official Air Force photos as well. Series illustrator Laura Alpher also contributed some awesome line drawings for the chapters on planes, engines, aviation concepts, and weapons; Clancy wrote an effusive compliment to Alpher, saying, "Once again Laura Alpher is to be complimented for her marvelous drawings, which have been such a pleasure to see, and have added so much to these books." I learned almost as much about the 1990s Air Force from this book as if I had gone to Mountain Home AFB on a guided tour myself. 

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