Air Combat: An Oral History of Fighter Pilots

by Robert F. Dorr

Dozens of interviews with combat veterans, along with photographs, offer a firsthand look inside the world of the fighter pilot, from the early days of World War II to the present day, describing the realities of battle, the history and characteristics of each pilot's plane, and the thoughts and feelings of aviation warriors.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 2000

About the author

Author of "HITLER'S TIME MACHINE."

Author (1955- ); Air Force veteran (1957-60); retired Foreign Service officer (1964-89).

Author of about 75 books on the Air Force and on military history and operations.

Author of the weekly "Back Talk" column in Air Force Times newspaper, the monthly "Washington Watch" column in Aerospace America magazine; the monthly "Front Line" column in Combat Aircraft magazine; the monthly "Washington News" column in Air International magazine; the "The Way It Was" photo feature in Warbirds magazine; the "History Mystery" feature in Air Power History magazine, and other stuff.

I live in Virginia with spouse and Labrador retriever, have grown sons, new iMac. "HITLER'S TIME MACHINE" was published in December 2014

Reviews

[Peter Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some interesting stuff in it. It wasn't quite the blow by blow account I was looking for but the combat descriptions are interesting enough.
However it has a couple of serious flaws for a book that purports to be an oral history of air combat.
Firstly, it has no accounts before WW11.
And there are plenty of first hand accounts out there that could have been included from WW1 which was the cradle of air combat.
And, secondly, there are no accounts by any pilot other than Americans. This is a major flaw. Other allied aircraft and pilots get only an occasional mention and enemy aircraft and pilots get next to no credit other than being targets.
You'd think the Americans had won all the wars single handedly.
It also has a lot of repetition in the accounts with a single victory being described by several of the participants whether they contributed to the kill or not.
The book got progressively more annoying and I was glad to get to the end

[Beth/Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Told by the pilots themselves. A lot of Korean war stories. Read what the real person who was portrayed by Robert Wagner in the movie the Hunters had to say about his experiences versus what you see in the movie. Desert Storm stories were interesting too.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

None better

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peachy