Hooked: Tails & Adventures of a Tailhook Warrior

by Cdr Clayton E. Fisher Usn (Ret)

As my vision cleared, the Zero fighter, with its big red "meatball" insignia was flying off my right wing, just like a wingman. THE PILOT WAS STARING AT ME! Like a cat with nine lives, CDR Clayton Fisher, a Navy carrier pilot, narrowly escaped death time after time. His love of flying began in childhood, starting with rides in barnstorming biplanes and a blimp, continuing on into the Battle of Midway, where he was a dive bomber pilot during the greatest naval battle in U.S. history. He flew in the initial flight of dive bombers attacking Japanese aircraft carriers in the Battle of Santa Cruz in the South Pacific where his ship, the USS Hornet, was sunk. Later during the Korean War he flew 80 combat bombing missions over North Korea in the famous Corsair fighter off the USS Essex during 1951 and 1952. Fisher's dramatic tales of life as a flight student, later as a dive bomber and fighter instructor, come to life vividly in HOOKED

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, fairly simple memoir of a Navy pilot, starting from World War 2 through Korea. CDR Fisher flew a Dauntless dive bomber from the USS Hornet at Midway, and later at Santa Cruz. Much later he ended up flying missions over Korea in a Corsair fighter-bomber from the USS Essex. There's not too much depth to the accounts in this book, which are all told from the first-person perspective. Reading it would be a nice way to spend a few summer afternoons.