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Punk #2
Punk's Wing
As if flying for the Navy isn't dangerous enough... The only female aviator in Rick "Punk" Reichert's fighter class rolls wildly during a hop, almost causing a deadly disaster. Punk is initially skeptical of her assertion that faulty equipment is to blame. But when a similar accident claims the life of a fellow instructor, Punk begins to suspect a cover-up involving the use of faulty parts. Just as he starts creating waves with allegations, his squadron is activated to pursue a more urgent matter--the War on Terrorism.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 5, 2023
Reasonably told
We continue to follow Punk as he’s assigned as an instructor & advisor to very new Tomcat pilots and their RIOs. First he’s faced with heavy political pressure to ensure that a certain aviator does well, but while he’s doing that he suffers a personal loss. Then the boat is at sea as 9/11 happens.
The author doesn’t sugarcoat the various aspects of being a Naval Aviator or the many things that military personnel have to deal with while also having to do a difficult & dangerous job in often poor conditions. He even (correctly) points out that the military makes its people deal with crowding, poor food, lack of sleep and even lower health care than any person in prison! And yet we “embrace the suck” & deal with it as being a typical part of the job. Just a cost of the honor of being able to serve our country.
We continue to follow Punk as he’s assigned as an instructor & advisor to very new Tomcat pilots and their RIOs. First he’s faced with heavy political pressure to ensure that a certain aviator does well, but while he’s doing that he suffers a personal loss. Then the boat is at sea as 9/11 happens.
The author doesn’t sugarcoat the various aspects of being a Naval Aviator or the many things that military personnel have to deal with while also having to do a difficult & dangerous job in often poor conditions. He even (correctly) points out that the military makes its people deal with crowding, poor food, lack of sleep and even lower health care than any person in prison! And yet we “embrace the suck” & deal with it as being a typical part of the job. Just a cost of the honor of being able to serve our country.
October 2, 2022
Good as the first - you bet.
Books of this genre can do one of two things.
1. They can baffle the reader with technology and tactics and just word these up to carry us through the read or
2. They can assume we (the readers) will ‘never understand’ and just talk about the ‘results’.
Mr Carroll actually puts the reader into the steel pilots seat and tells us what it is like to be human AND a fighter pilot.
Match this with the timing of this novel and you have a story that makes you feel ‘I could do this’ while still showing us how very very special these people are.
I imagine it takes experience in the ‘front gunners’ seat as well as bucket loads of talent to do this successfully- well done sir.
Books of this genre can do one of two things.
1. They can baffle the reader with technology and tactics and just word these up to carry us through the read or
2. They can assume we (the readers) will ‘never understand’ and just talk about the ‘results’.
Mr Carroll actually puts the reader into the steel pilots seat and tells us what it is like to be human AND a fighter pilot.
Match this with the timing of this novel and you have a story that makes you feel ‘I could do this’ while still showing us how very very special these people are.
I imagine it takes experience in the ‘front gunners’ seat as well as bucket loads of talent to do this successfully- well done sir.
March 17, 2023
I devoured this book. This was an excellent read, full of technical details and beautifully painted scenes. I thought this might be about a grown up CAPT Punk leading an Air Wing.... but nope, the word "wing" refers female pilot "Muddy" flying on his wing as his wingman...or is it wingperson? Good story about training pilots and RIOs for the Tomcat. As I read, I wondered how much Muddy resembled Kara "Hulk" Hultgren, the Navy's first female fighter pilot, who barely qualified in the Tomcat, then died on approach to CV-72 (1994). I also wondered if every carrier aviator was a graduate of "Canoe U", USNA, or if maybe somebody graduated from a real US University? That said, excellent book with a great story and well played.
September 13, 2024
Great story. For whatever reason, I wasn't thrilled with Punk's character at the start even though I knew of him from the prior book in the series. But then Punk's character and the story became really enjoyable as he started training the new pilots. Once the pilots start their aircraft carrier landing qualification process, this story becomes even more enjoyable. This book is right up there with other books that I've read about life on an aircraft carrier. There are a number of good sub-plots in this story. If you like Naval aviation and aircraft carrier stories, I recommend Punk's Wing.
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June 29, 2022Authentic!
Loved the detail that can only come from an insider. Didn't see many plot developments coming. A very satisfying read. I'm a pilot, and the irrational terrors that seized Muddy during carrier qualification brought back the anxieties I occasionally fell even after 3,000 landings. You can scare yourself silly before that "click" happens. About 90% of the time it does, but there are days when that panicky but absurdly irrational fear stays hovering over your head until touchdown. Carroll somehow captured it to a T. Well done!
Loved the detail that can only come from an insider. Didn't see many plot developments coming. A very satisfying read. I'm a pilot, and the irrational terrors that seized Muddy during carrier qualification brought back the anxieties I occasionally fell even after 3,000 landings. You can scare yourself silly before that "click" happens. About 90% of the time it does, but there are days when that panicky but absurdly irrational fear stays hovering over your head until touchdown. Carroll somehow captured it to a T. Well done!
September 16, 2023
Authentic and moves quickly
Ward captures not only the jargon but also the general feeling of the military . Most of this book revolves around the fighter pilot training pipeline, the last part brings us to the 9/11 events. If there is any criticism its that the protagonist Punk seems too perfect, he always has the witty one-liner, saves the day with his flying, Finally: what pilot in his right mind would want callsign Lucky? Tempting fate, like naming your daughter Venus, its sure she will turn out ugly.
Ward captures not only the jargon but also the general feeling of the military . Most of this book revolves around the fighter pilot training pipeline, the last part brings us to the 9/11 events. If there is any criticism its that the protagonist Punk seems too perfect, he always has the witty one-liner, saves the day with his flying, Finally: what pilot in his right mind would want callsign Lucky? Tempting fate, like naming your daughter Venus, its sure she will turn out ugly.
April 24, 2025
Great story written by a true Naval Aviator. The small details about flying the Tomcat are what make this series so special. The characters are fantastic and well developed. But, the smallest details such as sweeping the wings back just bit when going into the basket for refueling make this book awesome.
January 19, 2024
Couldn't put it down
Really enjoyable book. Captures the naval aviators outlook, challenges and motivations perfectly. It's like sitting in the O club with a few good classmates telling sea stories.
Really enjoyable book. Captures the naval aviators outlook, challenges and motivations perfectly. It's like sitting in the O club with a few good classmates telling sea stories.
August 16, 2023
Great read as usual, wondering if there ever was an issue with the roll packs on Tomcat, hopefully we'll see it resolved.
August 24, 2010
Carroll really knows how to write techno-novels. This one is actually the second after Punk's War and before Punk's Fight. I have read the other two and both are excellent if you enjoy a very realistic and detailed portrait of what it's like to fly off and on and aircraft carrier. Tom Clancy, eat your heart out.
The heart of this story involves RAG (Replacement Air Group) pilots going through training. During one of their exercises, the F-14 in which his best friend is the RIO instructor has the canopy sliced through by the wing of the formation jet flying next to him when it made an inadvertent roll. Both he and the pilot are killed immediately, the others managing to bail out in time. When the same thing happen to another RAG pilot, a female nicknamed "Muddy," (all of the pilots and RIOs have special call-signs) because she rolled her jet off the runway into the mud, this time with no casualties, Punk wonders if perhaps there might not be some flaw in the software that controls the flying surfaces.
Several things astonished me, one being the enormous amount of fuel consumer by the jets. Almost immediately after takeoff from a carrier, it's time to refuel so airborne refueling has to become second nature. And it puts tremendous pressure on the pilots to land on the carrier the first time. If they have to make too many attempts, and no refueling is available, it's bye-bye million dollar airplane. It does make one wonder if drones might not be a better way to go, after all. That would really piss off the fighter jocks, ceding control to some pimple-faced 18-year-old operating a joy-stick in an air-conditioned trailer in New Mexico.
Clearly the author, who flew Navy jets himself for many years, knows whereof he speaks. and has little time for the Air Force pilots who land on a huge runway that doesn't move. "We don't flare our jets and gently touch down on our million-foot-long, ten-thousand-foot-wide runways. We start our flights by hooking our jets up to a catapult and throwing all sixty-seven thousand pounds of them into the air in two-point-seven seconds, and when we're done we slam down at a seven-hundred-foot-per-minute rate of descent, catch a wire with our tail-hook while our jets are at full military power and stop within a couple hundred feet. And, oh, by the way, our runway moves around in the angry sea, and we land at night and in bad weather." Crazy.
Some really evocative writing of what it's like, and the technology involved, to land an F-14 on the deck of a carrier at night.
Carroll is no fool. This book was published in 2003 which presupposes that he wrote it in 2002. At the end of the book, the squadron is sent off to the Boat immediately following 9/11. There they are briefed by a couple of spooks about Afghanistan and the length of the flights to get there. Afterwards, the skipper gets their attention and ponders the differences and similarities between 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. ”But once you get past the fact we were caught off guard, this thing we’re calling Operation Enduring Freedom and World War Two won’t have much in common. I guarantee you this operation won’t provide the closure that the nation got in 1945. You won’t see the Taliban and Bin Laden averting their eyes and looking remorseful on the deck of one of our warships. We’re all riding an emotional high, but it won’t last. After the flags stop waving, we’ll still be here, seeing this thing through.” The CO eyed his charges and didn’t speak further. At that moment, Punk thought him a very wise man. Indeed.
The heart of this story involves RAG (Replacement Air Group) pilots going through training. During one of their exercises, the F-14 in which his best friend is the RIO instructor has the canopy sliced through by the wing of the formation jet flying next to him when it made an inadvertent roll. Both he and the pilot are killed immediately, the others managing to bail out in time. When the same thing happen to another RAG pilot, a female nicknamed "Muddy," (all of the pilots and RIOs have special call-signs) because she rolled her jet off the runway into the mud, this time with no casualties, Punk wonders if perhaps there might not be some flaw in the software that controls the flying surfaces.
Several things astonished me, one being the enormous amount of fuel consumer by the jets. Almost immediately after takeoff from a carrier, it's time to refuel so airborne refueling has to become second nature. And it puts tremendous pressure on the pilots to land on the carrier the first time. If they have to make too many attempts, and no refueling is available, it's bye-bye million dollar airplane. It does make one wonder if drones might not be a better way to go, after all. That would really piss off the fighter jocks, ceding control to some pimple-faced 18-year-old operating a joy-stick in an air-conditioned trailer in New Mexico.
Clearly the author, who flew Navy jets himself for many years, knows whereof he speaks. and has little time for the Air Force pilots who land on a huge runway that doesn't move. "We don't flare our jets and gently touch down on our million-foot-long, ten-thousand-foot-wide runways. We start our flights by hooking our jets up to a catapult and throwing all sixty-seven thousand pounds of them into the air in two-point-seven seconds, and when we're done we slam down at a seven-hundred-foot-per-minute rate of descent, catch a wire with our tail-hook while our jets are at full military power and stop within a couple hundred feet. And, oh, by the way, our runway moves around in the angry sea, and we land at night and in bad weather." Crazy.
Some really evocative writing of what it's like, and the technology involved, to land an F-14 on the deck of a carrier at night.
Carroll is no fool. This book was published in 2003 which presupposes that he wrote it in 2002. At the end of the book, the squadron is sent off to the Boat immediately following 9/11. There they are briefed by a couple of spooks about Afghanistan and the length of the flights to get there. Afterwards, the skipper gets their attention and ponders the differences and similarities between 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. ”But once you get past the fact we were caught off guard, this thing we’re calling Operation Enduring Freedom and World War Two won’t have much in common. I guarantee you this operation won’t provide the closure that the nation got in 1945. You won’t see the Taliban and Bin Laden averting their eyes and looking remorseful on the deck of one of our warships. We’re all riding an emotional high, but it won’t last. After the flags stop waving, we’ll still be here, seeing this thing through.” The CO eyed his charges and didn’t speak further. At that moment, Punk thought him a very wise man. Indeed.
June 24, 2011
Ward Carroll is an undiscovered treasure. His Punk Reichert novels are witty and realistic, probably because Carroll was a Naval Aviator himself. Plus, he has the ability to put you in the cockpit of a Tomcat with a minimum of technical fuss, and explains things with simple elegance. He should be making Tom Clancy’s money.
March 3, 2021
A bit of a letdown after book #1. Carol tried to address sexism in the military but does it ham-fistedly.
July 22, 2021
Best part of Punk's trilogy.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews