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(More customer reviews)ROGER BALL! The Odyssey of John Monroe "Hawk" Smith, Navy Fighter Pilot by Donald E. Auten (Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2006)
Reviewed by Captain Timothy E. "Spike" Prendergast, U.S. Navy (Retired)
When I assumed command of a fighter squadron in 1989, part of my brief remarks was a promise to try and lead as I had been taught by three of my former COs. One of those was Monroe "Hawk" Smith, under whose command I had learned the truest meaning of the dictum "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!"
Don Auten's highly readable biography of "Hawk" is a most welcome and much needed addition to the personal "fighter pilot library" of anyone who served at Miramar in the 70's and 80's, ever flew the Tomcat, attended TOPGUN, or served with Hawk or under his command. Filled with the names of Miramar and Navy fighter "greats" known to us all, like Jack Ready, "Hoser" Satrapa, "Bad Fred" Lewis, "Cobra" Ruliffson, "Thunder Bud" Taylor, "Boomer" Wilson, and many others, just reading it took me back to the Fightertown flight line, the LSO platform, the TACTS trailer and the "WOXOF" bar at the Miramar O'Club.
ROGER BALL details Hawk's many personal--and unique--contributions to the fleet introduction of the F-14 Tomcat, including OT&E, carrier suitability and first fleet CQ, and the initial thrills (and the initial disappointments...thump...bang!) of this now-legendary fighter aircraft. The story of his many key assignments at VX-4, as CAG LSO with the first F-14-equipped airwing, and during the AIMVAL/ACEVAL projects "fill in the details" of the early critical days of the aircraft and the community that would form around it. If others can lay just claim to being "the father of the Tomcat", Hawk surely can lay just claim to being one of the many "midwives" who made the birth and early formative years so successful.
Similarly, as almost a follow-on to Scream of Eagles: The Creation of TOPGUN and the U.S. Air Victory in Vietnam (Robert K. Wilcox, New York, NY, John Wiley & Sons, 1990), Hawk's time as first the XO, then the CO of the Navy Fighter Weapons School at Miramar, is a rich tale of "the best of times and the worst of times" at Fightertown USA. Those of us who were there will never forget.
For those many of us who served under Hawk's fleet command in the VF-213 "Black Lions", however, the book cries out for a sequel, as those years are relegated to almost footnote status. That critical tour, and all that it contained--firmly etched in our collective memories as almost nothing else--and Hawk's post-command and Major command assignments are all "rolled up" in only the last four pages of the book. We all eagerly await the much-needed second volume.
ROGER BALL is unquestionably the "book of the 2006 summer" for those of us who never tire of reading about the Naval aviation greats who created a community, became a legend, and who molded us, for better or worse, in their own image. For my part, I can only hope that my own efforts during my times in command did "Hawk" the honor that was intended.
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"Roger Ball!" doesn't just take you into the fighter pilot's cockpit as so many fine books about aviation have done.This book puts the reader inside the skin of one of the Navy's true characters.John Monroe "Hawk" Smith.—Leighton Warren Smith, Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Roger Ball! is the personal story of John Monroe "Hawk" Smith's esteemed career as a U.S. Navy fighter pilot from 1963 to 1993. Author Donald E. Auten provides a forceful account of the rollicking fun of deployment, the challenges of leadership, and the adrenaline rush of air-combat maneuvering.But life as a carrier pilot has a dark and frightening side too ...
Suddenly, everything caught up with them at once.The ball dropped to the bottom of the lens, the LSO screamed for more power ...Hawk strained to see the ball but caught only a momentary glimpse of a cherry red ball lying on the bottom of the lens accompanied by brilliantly flashing wave off lights.
KAWHOMPPHH!!!The Phantom came aboard with all the grace of a pallet of bricks.The impact caged his eyeballs and shot a spike of pain through his spinal column. They hit hard—harder than Hawk thought anything could hit without ending up in the hanger deck forty feet below.
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