Black Aces High
Robert K. Wilcox. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2002. 320 pp. Photos. Index. $24.95 ($22.45).
Reviewed Commander R. J. Proano, U.S. Navy
Robert Wilcox's Black Aces High is a unique look at the inner workings of naval aviation through the prism of an F-14 Tomcat fighter squadron. His opening description of lightning-paced, spine-twisting, one-on-one dogfighting against Soviet-built MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters captures the essence of modern aerial combat in which engagements are not won, but instead are lost by the first pilot to make a mistake. This is not Top Gun, however. Wilcox debunks the Hollywood image of today's Navy fighter pilot, choosing instead to show the reality of life in a fighter ready room in the heart of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at war. Extensive first-person dialogue and excerpts from pilots' letters home reflect the aircrews' constant apprehension about the next night trap, their resolve, dedication, and concern for loved ones, and offers a window on the humanity of some of our nation's most professional killers. Although it is an exciting book, this is not a techno-thriller. This is a book about the reality of war and the reality of the men and women who engage in warfare in the air.
The backdrop for this examination is Operation Deliberate Force in 1999, in which NATO, under U.S. leadership, acted to stem the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians by Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian Army. Into this maelstrom of confusing and redundant chains of command and conflicting allied political concerns is thrown the Navy's Black Aces (VF-41), a squadron of aging F-14As coming off several years of poor maintenance practices, abysmal aircraft availability, and questionable leadership. Compelling scenes of aerial combat, dodging surface-to-air missiles and antiaircraft fire over Kosovo are complemented by the story of the squadron's struggles to overcome its past performance. Faced with initial combat failures, the Aces suffered self-doubt, fatalism, nay-saying, and sometimes tepid support from the Navy command structure in their efforts to reorganize and reorient themselves for successful combat operations in the Balkans. This is a story of a squadron's fight, sometimes with itself, to pull together and get the job done.
In his dissection of the Kosovo campaign, Wilcox sheds light on the tremendous technological challenges of a precision bombing campaign under terrible weather conditions in a highly dangerous threat environment. CNN and Fox News showed the results, making the destruction of enemy targets look easy. Black Aces High tells the detailed story of the determination, tenacity, and personal commitment necessary to achieve the success in combat that most Americans simply took for granted.
Despite minor inaccuracies in the finer technical details and some annoying terminology errors, this is the first book to capture the tremendous flexibility, mobility, rapid response, and immense firepower of deployed naval air forces. In addition, Wilcox chronicles the early stages of the development of innovative hunter-killer tactics by aircraft against dispersed and mobile ground targets that would presage the Navy's spectacular victory in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The determination of the squadron's leadership, the drive and willingness of a few key individuals to innovate, and the necessity of stopping the slaughter of innocent Albanian Kosovars provided the impetus for forging the Tomcat into the Navy's premier precision strike aircraft. Today, this same squadron is going through a transition as it becomes one of the first to say goodbye to its Tomcats and receive new F/A-18F Super Hornets.
Black Aces High tells the real story, successes and failures alike, of naval aviation's role in modern war and avoids the hype and romanticism so common in much of today's military writing.
It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
Former Captain D. Michael Abrashoff, USN. New York: Warner Books, 2002. 256 pp. $24.95 ($22.45).
Reviewed by Vice Admiral Hank Giffin, U.S. Navy (Retired)
In It's Your Ship, Captain Michael Abrashoff details his highly successful 20-month tenure (as a commander) in command of the Benfold (DDG-65). He was the destroyer's second commanding officer, taking command six months after her commissioning in June 1997, and he led her through a deployment to the Persian Gulf, a short maintenance period, and the interdeployment training cycle,
He claims the Benfold was "the best damn ship in the Navy," and the results appear to validate his claim. Among other achievements, the Benfold won the Spokane Trophy (given to one ship a year in the Pacific Fleet deemed best in combat readiness), completed a nine-week overhaul in seven weeks and under budget, warfare qualified almost 200 of 310 sailors, and, most significant, increased combat readiness by reducing mission-degrading equipment failures from 75 the year prior to Commander Abrashoff taking command to 24 in his first year. Almost a third of the crew was advanced, twice the Navy average. These are remarkable achievements by anyone's standard.
Each chapter focuses on a different leadership principle and describes lessons Commander Abrashoff learned that made the Benfold a better ship. His examples are events, situations, and opportunities most commanding officers encounter in the course of a command tour. His prescriptions are straightforward; e.g., lead by example, listen aggressively, communicate purpose and meaning, create a climate of trust.
His concerns as he took command ("terribly insecure, scared, and full of doubt at first") are fears that probably mirror those of any officer walking up the brow to his or her first command. But he vowed not to be like the majority of the leaders under whom he learned. Instead, he wanted to empower the crew to excel in every aspect of shipboard life.
Unfortunately, the book frequently contains uncomplimentary descriptions of seniors, his predecessor, and fellow commanding officers, and he often describes how much smarter, visionary, innovative, and caring he was than these leaders. While this book is about leadership, one of the basics of leadership is to avoid public criticism of one's predecessor or one's seniors, particularly in front of your crew. He inherited a "dysfunctional ship" with a "sullen crew," yet only seven months after his taking command the Benfold won the Spokane Trophy. He writes that on arriving in the Persian Gulf he "wanted to glean as much influence as possible so that I could shortstop stupid policies in their infancy." This seems hardly the best attitude for supporting a healthy chain of command.
The book would have been just as effective without these comments. Other ships became "archrivals," almost always commanded (according to the author) by uncaring, unimaginative, and unprepared officers. It is difficult to believe these extreme "we-versus-the-world" feelings did not spread down to his wardroom and crew. While effective in the short run, this is not the type of teamwork we need to teach our sailors.
Despite this theme interlaced through the book, it is a worthwhile read for prospective commanding officers as well as for leaders of all ranks and rates. The principles Captain Abrashoff espouses and the tools he provides are wonderful examples for empowering today's sailors—and succeeding far beyond expectations. There are too few chronicles of leadership challenges in what some consider today's technology-oriented and "zero-defects" Navy. Captain Abrashoff fills that void. I recommend his book become mandatory reading for all prospective commanding officers and for all wardrooms and chiefs messes.
Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project's Indispensable Man
Robert S. Norris. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth, 2002. 722 pp. Photos. Notes. Bib. Index. $40.00 ($36.00).
Reviewed by Al Christmas
Just as sailors and soldiers are lauded for their courage, so too should we acknowledge historians who boldly assume and complete tough and important research. Robert Norris merits a snappy salute for his definitive biography of Army Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves, the leading military figure in the creation of the atomic bomb.
Norris must have known what an archival jungle he was entering when he took over the mountainous research of the late Stanley Goldberg. Moreover, Leslie Groves was not a person most people would choose to live with long enough to unravel this complex story. Gruff, arrogant, and indefatigable, his focus was narrow: the job at hand and himself.
Existing Hollywood stereotypes of General Groves and common misinterpretations of the bomb's history complicated Norris's task. Even recognized scholars have warped this important part of U.S. history by focusing on the scientists and thereby minimizing the important role of the military. In particular, many historians have deflated General Groves as the chief administrator and ramrod of the Manhattan Project, as well as Captain Williams S. "Deak" Parsons, the officer who transformed the scientists' nuclear creation into a deliverable weapon. Both of these men need to be recognized as a new class of warrior in this modem age of scientifically dependent warfare.
Racing for the Bomb can be viewed as two books in one: the life story of an ambitious mission-driven general, and the story of the atomic bomb, The author succeeds in telling both, but those readers drawn to the book by the title need to know there is no racing for anything in the first 180 pages. So either skim forward, or settle back and enjoy a detailed biographical account covering General Groves's family background, his youth as the son of an Army chaplain, his years at West Point, and finally his engineering assignments leading up to the Manhattan Project.
The chapters on the bomb reveal General Groves at his best as he aggressively took over a project that was floundering under the scientists. Here we see him as decisive, able to see the big picture, talented in selecting key people, and manipulating the bureaucracy to put the crucial decision making in his own hands.
Norris brings fresh light to the transition of the nation's nuclear resources from military to civilian control under the Atomic Energy Commission. Despite the loss of his unprecedented wartime powers, General Groves kept the Manhattan Project intact until organizational mechanisms were established that would give the military services access to the nuclear weapons, materials, and information needed to perform their missions. He kept a lid on the nation's nuclear secrets at a time when many disparate groups were trying to get a slice of the nuclear pie.
General Groves might not have been the only indispensable person in the Manhattan Project (certainly Robert Oppenheimer, George Kistiakowsky, and Deak Parsons were just as "indispensable"), but he certainly was provocative and colorful. Norris recognizes his idiosyncrasies but does not allow them to obscure General Groves's important role in ending the bloodiest war in human history.