Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Military memoirs are kind of a tricky category. The authors usually aren't professional writers, but that's often a bonus rather a drawback. Donald Engen's book is perhaps somewhat of an exception to this rule.
"Wings and Warriors" is well worth reading, but it required a bit of grit to make it through to the end. Engen has a remarkable career as a naval aviator and test pilot, and goes on to become a Captain in the "black shoe" Navy. But his account often threatens to bog down in a welter of detail. Engen includes a lot of facts about a lot of different aircraft, and salutes a great many of his comrades and commanders, but the momentum of the narrative tends to suffer as a result.
I found myself wishing the book had an appendix with a field guide to all the aircraft Engen describes. As Engen notes, there were many different types of jets produced in the early days, and he seems to have flown most of them. But it's hard to keep them straight, especially because Engen refers to them mostly by their original Navy designations, which are somewhat obscure today. (Engen gripes about the Pentagon-imposed "uniform" aircraft designations which eliminated the Navy system in the early 1960s.)
Despite some excess baggage, "Wings and Warriors" has enough great stories along the way to make the trip worthwhile. As a test pilot, Engen relates why it isn't necessarily a good idea to turn off your jet's engine at high altitude just to see what happens. (Hint: the engine also keeps the cabin pressurized.)
Test pilot Engen also flies a series of attempts to set the altitude record. He manages to best the Soviet mark, although not by a wide enough margin to make the record books. But he does a really nice job of relating the experience, and it's pretty clear there's no major disappointment involved.
There are many other gems here as well. Mrs. Engen devises an unusual method to remind her flyboy hubby that he drove off with *both* sets of car keys that morning. The Engens move so frequently that one move is cancelled halfway to make way for the *next* move. Given command of an ammunition ship, black-shoed Captain Engen reveals himself as a world-class scrounger. It's not hard to understand why a crew would be intensely loyal to a skipper like that.
I did find one minor factual error: during his carrier qualification, Engen refers to Point Oboe as the "large mausoleum" on the shores of Lake Michigan. The "mausoleum" is in fact the Bahai House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, not far from the former NAS Glenview. But Engen was there for all of one day over fifty years ago, so I suppose we'll give him a "fair pass" on that one.
After the Navy, Engen went on to become the FAA adminstrator and the curator of the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. As this memoir makes clear, Engen is unusually well-qualified for both jobs.
Click Here to see more reviews about: WINGS & WARRIORS (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series)
Rising from aviation cadet to vice admiral, Donald D. Engen played a key role in the Navy's remarkable transition from propeller planes to jet fighters that flew at twice the speed of sound. In this account of his first 25 years as a naval aviator during a time of great change, Engen vividly recalls the slow start, heroics, and hardships of the golden age of jet airplane development. 44 photos .
0 comments:
Post a Comment