Ironclaw: A Navy Carrier Pilot's War Experience

by Sherman Baldwin

Book Overview

A fascinating, intensely realistic glimpse of the U.S. Navy in action, this book puts readers in the cockpit with Sherman Baldwin, a rookie pilot who recounts his experiences during the Persian Gulf... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553577484
• ISBN13: 9780553577488
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Engrossing and fascinating yet not grandiloquent...

I recently read Sherman Baldwin's "Ironclaw : A Navy Carrier Pilot's War Experience" and I was completely at a loss for words on what a great book it is. This book was action-packed and was to the point, unlike many other fighter books I have read. It also has an uncompareable description of what life on the aircraft carrier the "Midway" was really like during Operation Desert Storm. When I read the first chapter, I really felt my head being thrown back into the seat as Sherman was catapulted off the deck of the old and worn aircraft carrier, and I felt the jolt of the Prowler slamming against the deck during landing. One word to describe the author's writing? Succinct. His writing was extremely clear and precise yet was not boring or grandiloquent. After reading Ironclaw, I felt a sense of pride for my country, and I have much greater respect for the men and women of today's armed services, especially the devoted people who risk their lives everyday for my protection and liberty. The chapters are rather short, alowing you to catch ten or so pages on a break or at school or anytime you have 15 minutes. Being only 15 years old, I still have a long way to go in my life, I hope. I am interested in fighter planes and this is above all the crème de la crème of fighter books, the best I have read so far. The plot is extremely riveting and action-filled. Please don't take my word for it: read it!

A strap in, hold on thrill ride experience of a USN "nugget"

Sherman Baldwin, a United States Navy EA-6B Prowler pilot, portrays his experience as a "nugget" (first deployment pilot) aboard the USS Midway. Baldwin used real life peace and war time experiences to create one of the most exciting and outstanding millitary novels of all time. Ironclaw straps you into one of the most sophisticated, electronically crammed, cockpits in the world. This book will take you to the edge and back. As an aspiring pilot, I recomend you pick up a copy today.

Inside the cockpit with Navy flyer - Boston Globe

There has got to be a rush that comes from taking off from an aircraft carrier in a jet, being accelerated by a steam catapult and a pair of screaming afterburners to nearly 170 m.p.h. in less than 2 seconds. Nor does it take a Stephen King to imagine the stress involved in trying to get back aboard a carrier on an inky night in a plane low on fuel. Among naval aviators, this is what separates those who can "hack it" from those who cannot. For carrier pilots do not land their planes so much as slam them aboard heaving, yawing ships at sea. So it is that night landings, in which vertigo and optical illusion are routeine and depth perception nonexistent, become "the practice of overcoming the fear of death," writes Lt. (j.g.) Sherman Baldwin, who spent his nugget - maiden - cruise aboard the USS Midway during the Persian Gulf War. If Baldwin's introspection sets "Ironclaw" (the call sign of his squadron) apart from others of its ilk, make no mistake: This is a book about flying. It begins with the author's first night catapult shot aboard the Midway and with great perception describes life for those who come and go on a seaborne aircraft carrier at war

Publisher's Weekly = "vivid ... gritty & visceral memoir"

Baldwin was fresh out of pilot training as a lieutenant j.g. when, on Dec. 10, 1990, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Midway in the Persian Gulf. A skilled aviator, the young "nugget" - a pilot on his first sea cruise - nevertheless had much to learn before becoming proficient at carrier operations. The process would be short and intense. Operation Desert Shield had begun months earlier and Baldwin, along with his shipmates, knew that the U.S. could go to war against Iraq at any time. When Operation Desert Storm was launched in January 1191, Baldwin found himself in the thick of the action. By then, he had logged numerous hours on carrier launches, aerial refueling and landings performed at night on the pitching deck of "the smalllest carrier in the fleet." As related here, these tasks are as terrifying as the later wartime missions. Baldwin's account of his attempt to hook up to a refueling tanker in the dark, while running out of gas and hampered by nervous jitters, is among the most vivid in aviation literature. His running tale of his long-distance courtship of his wife is less engaging, but it doesn't hamper the appeal of this gritty and viseral memoir. (Sept '96

Navy pilot courts danger & his wife from the USS Midway

Navy pilot Sherm Baldwin ushers you silently into the cockpit of his Navy Jet Prowler in the Gulf War as he lands and takes off both day and night onto the smallest aircraft carrier in our fleet. You feel all his experiences at first hand, right along with him and his crew. My twelve year old son likes the book as much as I do ("the best book I ever read," he told me) probably in spite of the fact that "Tank" Baldwin courts his wife to be Alice by daily letter from the Gulf War. No surprise to me that the Military Book Club has chosen IRONCLAW as its lead selection this Fall. Give it a try ... the first chapter will have you gripping your seat wondering if can land this damn plane