MIG Pilot Final Escape of Lieu

I read this book only once, many years ago, having checked it out of the library of a U.S. airbase in South Korea. I still think of portions of it often. I am a non-fiction reader by nature, so I esteem a true story to be of infinitely more value than any great tale of rings or of teenage witches. Surprisingly, this book has very little to do with flying. It is mostly about what it was like to live in the Soviet Union and to be taught constantly about the Evil Americans. The most remarkable part of the story is how Viktor Belenko came to his decision to defect, which I will not dare to spoil here. I have been in the U.S. Air Force for a long time, most of that time as a pilot. Whenever the frequent opportunity arises to whine about how I'm underappreciated, and how the government and the Air Force and the base housing office and the squadron seem to be run by a committee of morons, I think about Belenko's description of how the airbase where he was a fighter pilot removed snow from the runway. Then I count my blessings again. I was not particularly patriotic before I read MiG Pilot. But after reading it, and subsequently flying throughout the world and seeing people in several countries still plowing fields with an ox in the 21st Century, I have learned how wonderful it is to live in a place where people pay extra money to help themselves eat less food, while not for a moment even realizing how incongruous it is. Better still, I appreciate the opportunity to have become a military pilot without my family having any necessary political connections. Were I a billionaire, I would fund my own production of MiG Pilot, the movie, with Matt Damon as Viktor Belenko. You get the idea. Read the book.

This autobiography by Soviet MIG pilot Victor Belenko is an opener!! It was real! Cold War conduct was incredible as military secrets leaked between the two superpowers - Russia and the USA. Check out how the Soviets responded towards a solution about the USA's airspace intrusions with USA's SR-71 Blackbird. MIG 25 Codename: Foxbat. The Russian Mach 3 interceptor, was amazing!!

I read this book twice while the Soviet Union still stood. The book is brilliently written. You get a view of life inside the former Soviet Union, inside their millitary and civillian life, and you see through the eyes of a refugee when he first experiences America. The story helps you to appreciate what you have here. Lt. Belenko is a very courageous man.

I read this book back in 1984 as a teenager and the story of this pilot blew me away. I got a good look at life inside "the Evil Empire" as well as an outsider's impressions of America and all it has to offer. Until reading Mig Pilot, I did not have a real appreciation for the country I was lucky enough to be born in or the freedoms we often take for granted. This book is a fascinating read with a real-life hero who had the guts to fly into the unknown in search of the truth. You don't have to be a flag-waving, my-country-right-or-wrong nut to enjoy this story. Anyone wanting to realize what it means to live in a free country would get a lot out of this book. I recommend it highly.

A must read for those interested in POLITICAL/SOCIAL history. It offers a fairly short and candid look into the Russia of the 60's and 70's- from living conditions to how its citizens were taught to view the west. After the defection, we learn Belenko's realizations and revelations of the real America