Magnum! The Wild Weasels in Desert Storm: The Elimination of Iraq's Air Defence

by Braxton R. 'Brick' Eisel, James A. Schreiner

This book is based upon a journal Jim Schreiner kept during his deployment to the Persian Gulf region for Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM. Building upon that record and the recollections of other F-4G Wild Weasel aircrew, the authors show a slice of what life and war was like during that time. The pawns in the game, the ones that had to actually do the fighting and dieing were the hundreds of thousands of men and women who left their homes and families to live for seemingly endless months in the vast, trackless desert while the world stage-play unfolded. To them, the war was deeply personal. At times, the war was scary; at other times, it was funny as hell. Usually, if you survive the former, it turns into the latter.

Genres: Aviation, History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2009

About the author

Brick Eisel is a recently retired USAF officer with an extensive background in tactical aviation as well as having served as a military historian. He has written many articles for the international aviation press and Beaufighters in the Night for Pen & Sword.

Reviews

[Jonathan Jeckell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of really interesting insights into suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD), how surface to air missiles work and how to fight them, and how the US effort began and evolved over time.

However, the writing was fragmented and a little disjointed by capturing war stories from myriad Wild Weasel pilots verbatim. This allowed a more comprehensive picture of what happened across the entire Weasel force throughout Desert Storm, but also led to some direct repetition and made it a little harder to follow. My rating may also be biased downward because I don't like "so there I was" war stories and prefer sticking with a more systemic/explanatory approach. If you like more personal war stories, revise my rating upward to suit your taste.

[8629 · Rating 4 out of 5]

You needed to tell more of the story

I was there the same time you were but enlisted. We were treated even worse by Col Fish Face. One day I was lucky enough to be sent downtown to purchase weight equipment for a gym we were building. Low and behold I see a Navy guy walking along the road in shorts and a tank top, this was very close to the Navy base which was not far from downtown. We were told by fish face we could not go downtown because we would be targets for terrorists, now you can imagine what I was thinking when I see several more tattooed Navy personnel in shorts and t-shirts downtown. This was early in our stay and not much of what fish face said I believed. I purchased the equipment we needed as we were tired of working out with sandbags, and because I was not trusted (enlisted person) I had to meet a Major that paid for the equipment. He told me he was living in Hilton downtown and all the great restaurants he ate at and I am thinking I live in a tent with hundreds of rats running around and eating MREs and have to walk (sometimes run) 100 yards or more to the toilet. We were both the same age but he did not work for fish face. This is just one story, I have hundreds from the 7 months I was there. I should also tell you some of us had to purchase our own airline tickets to get back from the war, we finally got reimbursed after it was leaked to the media that we had to pay for our own tickets. Maybe I should write a book. Oh, after I got back I went to work directly for Col Fish Face, needless to say we really never got along.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

very insightful on one aspect of the first Gulf War

[Butch · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's ok but more like a debrief to me

[Stephen P. Moynihan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice memoir.

Nice memoir, technical enough but should be easy for non pilot to understand. I enjoyed the fast read. Check 6

[Joseph Moyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly organized. No flow. If one was a military pilot they may be able to make sense of what was happening.

[Michael Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow to get started but once it did, I couldn't put it down!

[Sesnjcpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Older Brother Major Ken(Momar)Spaar was a Weopons Officer on the F-4, he's quoted in the book along with his pilot Quinn. They were credited with the most SAM (radars that guided the SAM missiles)kills in the Gulf War.