Review (PDF) When Penguins Flew And Water Burned
This is the true memoir of one US Air Force navigator’s journey from the schoolhouses of Air Training Command to the nuclear alerts of the Cold War to combat in a 35-year-old anachronism called the B-52. It is a first-hand account of life during the last days of Strategic Air Command, the early days of Air Combat Command and the ensuing military drawdown of the 1990s. From peacetime training exercises across the globe to combat operations in Desert Storm, Jim Clonts takes the reader inside the cockpit where life and death are seconds apart. Often comical, sometimes heart-pounding, other times tragic, WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED takes you into the world of military aviation, a crucible where warriors learn the true nature of character, conscience and mortality.
File Size: 998 KB
Print Length: 452 pages
Publisher: Lulu (September 26, 2010)
Publication Date: September 26, 2010
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B0044R98VC
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #282,766 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Americas > United States > Military History > Operation Desert Storm #51 in Books > History > Military > United States > Operation Desert Storm #286 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Military > Aviation
This is a very good book which is both enjoyable to read and interesting for the reader desiring to learn just what the modern military navigator does. The author is a fine wordsmith, and writes in an active style which makes for zero flat or dull moments along the way. Style can make or break a book, and in this book it "makes it". I have been interested in aviation books that deal with the evolution of the navigator, and there are many great ones out there. But in today's age, the vocation has been replaced in commercial aviation with GPS, etc. The military still uses navigators, and I have always been interested in learning how they practice their art today.Well, this book delivers those facts and more! It starts out at day 1 of undergraduate navigation training school in the late 80's and moves continually through B-52 training and Desert Storm. It's a personal story that weaves the life of the author ( a young Air Force Captain)throughout his military career as a navigator. The deployments, long flights, and the details of the navigator's part of the collective mission are all spelled out, and the reader actually feels like he has - at the end of the book - just completed a 10 year tour as an Air Force navigator.The equipment of the navigator is all described technically as easy to understand as is possible, although this is not always possible to do...how could it be done? It takes 6 months of training to understand the gizmos and gyros, etc! But, in those rare instances, the reader gets the drift (a navigation term, coincidentally).For anyone interested in what a B-52 modern day crew does, this book will satisfy their curiosity.
This book came "recommended" by after I read "We were Crew Dogs" (I and II), so I decided to give it a whirl. What a great book!It covers a period in history of tremendous military significance, as well as describing in detail a job that few truly understand outside of military aviation circles.Regarding the book's military significance: The Strategic Air Command and the US Air Force fought a 35-year, toe-to-toe war with the Soviet Union-- and won. Few people understand what they did-- and how they did it. But the guys that crewed the "BUFFs" were playing for keeps. And then some. The B-52 is truly a world-recognized symbol of strategic (high level, and yes, high altitude) American air power. Those of us who grew up in the 60's (or 70's or 80's for that matter) knew what this plane could do- so learning all about it here, from a crewman's perspective, provides a truly significant contribution to a period of American history unknown to most.I had no idea that these crews were flying low-level-- and I mean LOW LEVEL (500 foot off the ground, 300-450 mph!) flights-- in daytime and in the middle of the night. (I thought the B-52 was a high-altitude nuclear bomber-- shows you what I know.) I had not idea that these same bombers routinely flew missions lasting 16 hours-- or 24 hours-- in other countries, with one, two or three airborne refuelings.And I not a clue that their navigators were tasked with not only being at the exact spot-- sometimes down in the dirt, sometimes high (in this book, 6-8 miles up was also routine)-- but they were to be ON time. And I mean, exactly on time. Down to the second. After flying for 7 hours and 23 minutes and eighteen seconds.. or six hours and 28 minutes and eleven seconds.
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