Red Eagles: The USAF's Cold War Secret Squadon
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From the late 1960s until the end of the Cold War, the United States Air Force acquired and flew Russian-made MiG jets, culminating in a secret squadron dedicated to exposing American fighter pilots to enemy technology and tactics.Red Eagles tells the story of this squadron from the first tests of MiGs following the Vietnam War when the USAF had been woefully under-prepared in aerial combat. These initial flights would develop into the "black" or classified program known internally as Constant Peg.At a secret air base in Nevada, ace American fighter pilots were presented with a range of differnet MiG jets with a simple remit: to expose "the threat" to as many of their brethern as possible. Maintaining and flying these "assets" without without spare parts or manuals was an almost impossible task, putting those flying the MiGs in mortal danger on every flight.Despite these challenges, in all more than 5,900 American aircrews would train against America's secret MiGs, giving them the eskills they needed to face the enemy in real combat situations.For the first time, this book tells the story of Constant Peg and the 4477th Red Eagles Squadron in the words of the men who made it possible. Publishers Weekly This is an engaging combination of an adventure story and a case study in military reform. The Vietnam War showed the U.S. Air Force's neglect of air-to-air combat training in the belief that it was outmoded by nuclear war. Repairing that damage required a training system using Soviet bloc planes as well as air-combat tactics. Davies, a freelance expert on military aviation, explores fresh sources to begin telling how the U.S. acquired the aircraft, put them into flying condition and established a top-secret program that gave generations of young pilots something approaching experience in the realities of dogfighting. Davies eloquently describes the forceful, colorful personalities at the sharp end of this high-risk maverick operation. The book provides a perceptive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of mid-generation Soviet MiGs that significantly expands understanding of the Arab-Israeli and Indo-Pakistan encounters involving those aircraft. Davies's major achievement is his demonstration of the Red Eagles' role in facilitating the USAF's development into a potent instrument of air supremacy that remains important even in the current era of antiterrorism. (Sept. 23)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Dedication 6 Acknowledgments 7 Foreword 10 Introduction 12 Part 1 Acquiring "The Assets" 15 Chapter 1 HAVE MiGs, 1968-69 16 Chapter 2 A Genesis for the Red Eagles, 1972-77 21 Part 2 Laying the Ground Work 49 Chapter 3 Constant Peg and Tonopah, 1977-79 50 Chapter 4 The Red Eagles' First Days and the Early MiGs 78 Chapter 5 The "Flogger" Arrives, 1980 126 Chapter 6 Gold Wings, 1981 138 Part 3 Expanded Exposures and Red Flag, 1982-85 155 Chapter 7 The Fatalists, 1982 156 Chapter 8 Postai's Crash 176 Chapter 9 Exposing the TAF, 1983 193 Chapter 10 "The Air Force is Coming," 1984 221 Chapter 11 From Black to Gray, 1985 256 Part 4 The Final Years, 1986-88 275 Chapter 12 Increasing Blue Air Exposures, 1986 276 Chapter 13 "Red Country," 1987 293 Chapter 14 Arrival Shows, 1988 318 Postscript 327 Endnotes 330 Appendices 334 Glossary 342 Index 346
