| Details | | Publication Date: | 1996-08-01 | | Edition Description: | Illustrated |
| Size | | Length: | 239 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 23.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
The United States Air Force fought as a truly independent service for the first time during the Korean War. As a result, the fighter pilots reigned supreme. Korea, then, is the perfect laboratory for studying the culture of fighter pilots, a culture based on self-confidence and risk-taking, one which has promoted what John Darrell Sherwood calls "flight suit attitude". In Officers in Flight Suits, Sherwood explores the flight suit officer's life, drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, novels, unit records, and personal papers as well as interviews with over fifty veterans who served in the Air Force in Korea. The book provides an illuminating portrait of fighter pilot culture, demonstrating how this culture affected their performance in battle and their attitudes toward others, particularly women, in their off-duty activities.
Industry Reviews
Sherwood's social history of Korean War fighter pilots makes a modest contribution toward understanding how and why certain individuals ended up in one of the military's most challenging and demanding assignments. The author examines the background and training of 11 'central figures' to illuminate what he terms the 'flight suit attitude.' . . . Unfortunately, the book is yet another case of a doctoral dissertation that has been rushed prematurely into print. The author focuses on too small a sample to make any convincing sociological generalizations, and the topic cries out for a comparative study. Were Korean War fighter pilots different from those who flew in WW I, WW II, and Vietnam? If so, in what ways? More research would have produced a far more valuable study of the fighter pilot ethic.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Leary
Sherwood confirms much already known about fighter-interceptor pilots. . . . Sherwood's most valuable contribution is the chapter delineating the fighter-bomber pilots who specialized in unglamorous and hazardous interdiction missions. The focus on fighter pilots limits the value of this book, however. . . . Sherwood thoroughly documents the superb performance of air force fighter pilots during the Korean War. . . . The author has competently mined the extensive documentary resources of the Air Force History and Museums Program and made constructive use of memoirs and interviews. His book is well worth perusing. It should, however, be read in conjunction with Vance O. Mitchell's excellent Air Force Officers: Personnel Policy Development, 1944-1974 (1996), a far more comprehensive and important work on the character and development of the air force officer corps.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Leary
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