Eye of the Viper: The Making of an F-16 Pilot

I greatly enjoyed this book.The author presents a great picture of the workload and commitment it takes to fly the USAF's advanced fighters. Oh,and to Capt. & Mrs. Quattlebaum,methinks you protest too much!

I don't care what KQ or Mrs.KQ had to say..this book was fantastic! I'm going to have to agree with the gentleman down below...KQ quit your whining....for god sakes man your a fighter pilot!!...act like one!...:)

I'm currently a Viper pilot and I think this book was awesome. Sure there are some inaccuracies, but Mr. Aleshire did a good job overall capturing the feelings and the attitude of a young fighter pilot. Capt Quattlebaum: just because you don't know there is a rift in your class doesn't mean it isn't there. My class had a contentious assignment process and guess what - hard feelings were there until the day we graduated. Yes, being an F-16 pilot is about hard work and dedication, but it's a damn good time, too.

The United States military pilots have a long established tradition of extensive training. By 1945 the US pilots were going into battle after just about a year of training. In contract the German and Japanese pilots had only a couple of weeks training. This tradition, for the US, at least continues. The training of a pilot for the F-16 is a long process on top of a history of excellence. This book is the story of a group of F-16 trainees going through the transition to the F-16. They are already pilots, but of planes with less performance. They are already the elite, the best of the best. And now the Air Force is preparing to spend $2 million on each of them for a six month class. The writing in the book almost makes it read like a novel. And the author admits that he has combined some of their stories into single people. This does not hurt the tone, nor the image that you get of the fighter mentality that the Air Force demands. Good Book.

Fighter pilot! That two-word job description conjures up the image of a grinning, brave, patriotic "fast-mover" born to dog-fight to glory - a cliche vision, to be sure. But as Peter Aleshire skillfully demonstrates in "EYE OF THE VIPER: THE MAKING OF AN F-16 PILOT", there is much truth in the "TOP GUN" vision of a modern fighter pilot in the U-S armed forces. Almost without exception, they are drawn to their calling by a desire to 'kill the bad guys and break their s--t." But Aleshire takes the reader backstage and delineates in fascinating - and often frightening - detail all that goes into taking a young male or female with an aptitide for flying and turning them into instruments of combat fought at breathtaking speed - decisions cascading in milliseconds - a process so unforgiving that of the 90 F-16 pilots killed since the "Viper" went into service - all were victims of training accidents. Aleshire makes clear the awesomeness of the F-16 itself. The Air Force calls it the "Fighting Falcon" - clearly not warlike enough for the pilots who dub their fighter "Viper". Molding "fliers" into "warriors" takes months and millions of dollars per pilot. Aleshire puts the reader squarely in the cockpits of F-16s employed to train pilots at Luke Air force Base. "Newby" pilots dubbed"punks" are subjected to ruthless instruction and screening by IPs - Instructor Pilots who feel keenly their responsibillity of sending active duty squadrons F-16 wingmen who won't get their buddies killed. Aleshire captures the human synergy between pilot and teacher as the instructors pile multiple tasks on fledging pilots - like bricks on a sheet of glass - watching to see when the glass starts to crack under the strain. By the time I finished this book, I could talk fighter talk and imagine the rush of skimming the earth at close to the speed of sound or twisting the jet onto the knife edge of a wing - turning tight enough to get off a missile shot at the "enemy" jet in the "gunsight" projected onto the HUD - the "heads-up display" of flight data every Viper pilot sees projected on his or her bubble canopy. Aleshire puts you alone in the jet - the ancient drama of mano-a-mano combat. And yet, he makes clear the F-16 fighter jock is an integral part of an amazingly complex and elaborate evolution of modern warfare made possible - and deadly - by the stunning success of the F-16 as a weapons platform: light, fast, powerful, and with a long track record of- you guessed it: killing the bad guys and breaking their "s--t." Read the "EYE OF THE VIPER" and the next time you read or see news of U-S air operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever, you will understand so much more about this particular breed of American techno-warrior and the machines they pilot into battle. Aleshire forecasts that in a decade or so, air combat will be fought and flown by robotic aircraft. Safer for the pilots perhaps, but lacking the "cool" of the "Viper"and the warriors who "s