Entertainment, Books - Marine Corps Times

'Air Combat' tells war tales in aviators' own words

When "Marine Air: The History of the Flying Leathernecks in Words and Photos" was published last fall, it offered a unique and highly illustrated history of an air arm whose tradition is as legendary as the ground infantry it supports.

Not only did author Robert F. Dorr pay tribute to forgotten pilot heroes, he also corrected a number of lingering historical inaccuracies and misconceptions fostered by recent books flawed by sloppy research and World War II military movies and novels that played fast and loose with the facts.

Now, building upon the wealth of information in the vignettes he collected while writing "Marine Air," Dorr enriches our appreciation of air warfare by offering a new collection of memories, "Air Combat: An Oral History of Fighter Pilots."

Built from dozens of interviews with aviators from across the services and several flights aboard various aircraft during 2004 and 2005, the book's 20 chapters are filled with priceless first-person accounts that provide a survey of air combat from the fierce dogfights of World War II to the high-tech missile duels of today.

Dorr, an Air Force veteran who has penned more than 60 books on military history and air operations, writes historical features and commentaries for the Military Times papers.

Exhibiting an ease and thorough acquaintance with American aviation history, he places us in the cockpits of the few determined pilots who managed to get their planes airborne as the Japanese attacked the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Over North Vietnam, we're with a pilot whose aircraft has been crippled by cannon fire and must make it home alive. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, we're side by side with the aviators of an F-15 squadron as it decimates the Iraqi air force.

Organized chronologically, the eyewitness narratives, accompanied by more than 100 black-and-white wartime snapshots, are candid and deeply personal, bringing to life the details of savage aerial dogfights.

With care and clarity, Dorr has edited the veterans' recollections to evoke the sights, sounds and smells of fighting aircraft.

"Air Combat: An Oral History of Fighter Pilots" is an important verbal and visual mosaic of American aviation history since 1941, told in the words of those who were there. It provides much-needed, fresh information about combat actions that, while they raged over combat theaters covering close to a third of the globe, had been overshadowed by ground and naval battles.

More important, this vivid portrait is a moving chronicle of the courage and commitment of American men and women who fought for freedom.

‘Air Combat: An Oral History of Fighter Pilots.’ By Robert F. Dorr. Berkley Caliber. 320 pages. $24.95.

Don DeNevi is a freelance writer in California.