Scream of Eagles: The Creation of Top Gun and the U.S. Air Victory in Vietnam

by Robert K. Wilcox

Book Overview

We had the best planes, the most sophisticated weapons technology, and by far, the heftiest military budget in the free world. They had a "peasant airforce" equipped mainly with inferior Russian MiGs. So why weren"t we winning the air war over Vietnam? The first true account of the Navy"s fighter pilots in Vietnam and how the creation of Top Gun changed the course of the Vietnam air war.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 047152641X
• ISBN13: 9780471526414
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 295 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book, lousy condition

The book is incredible, but I received a book with considerable water damage listed as "good" condition.

Up there..with the Best of the Best...

This little book provides an excelent and thorough account of the circunstances that led to the creation of Top Gun, it takes you behind the scenes and show's you from the perspective of the pilots how to apply what they learned at school in real engagements in the deadly skies of Vietnam against Mig's.

The Unreported War

Robert Wilcox has gone where few have tread -- to the air above Vietnam -- and we are left with a tightly written, throughly researched eye-opener of what really happened up there, and what Top Gun really was minus pretty boys in makeup and a rock and roll score. A must read for Jane Fonda.

Wilcox book is a Screaming success!

For everyone who thinks they know what it takes to be a top gun pilot based on the film, Top Gun, run, don't walk to the store and get Bob Wilcox's "Scream of Eagles." Here's the real story of the creation of Top Gun during the Vietnam war and it's a hell of a good story as told by Wilcox. He really puts you in the cockpit with the best of the best. They should make this into a movie!

Even Better Than Wings of Fury!

When I finished reading Robert Wilcox' Wings of Fury, I was impressed. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to read his earlier work Scream of Eagles (The Creation of TopGun).Sincerely this is even better than Wings of Fury. There are plenty of first person accounts (sea stories) of TopGun's genesis and dogfights against the VPAF. The USN was less than enthusiastic about funding and equipping this new school in 1969. When you read about this and put yourself back in time, it's amazing that TopGun ever got started. But that's just part of the story...The F-8 Crusader's days were numbered as the F-4 Phantom was replacing the 'sader in the Fleet. The men that developed TopGun knew that BVR missile shots were not the answer. Pilots needed to know how to dogfight and get the maximum performance out of their airplane and work as a team (both as a section of fighters and as a Pilot/RIO team). TopGun provided the cadre to teach fleet Phantom crews to build this teamwork. If y! ou're a fan of the F-4 Phantom, read this book. If you're a fighter aviation history buff, read this book. After you read this, go read Marshall Michel's CLASHES:Air Combat Over North Vietnam 1965-1972. You'll be shaking your head, wondering if the USN and USAF were fighting the same war. Makes you kinda wonder why the USAF scaled back its Agressor squadrons in recent years.

I recommend this book to any military aviation enthusiast

SCREAM OF EAGLES is a book that tells about the Navy's air war in Vietnam- the terrible losses of expensive aircraft to a peasent's air force, and the triumphant victory after the creation of the Navy's Fighter Weapon School (Top Gun). This book has accounts from such Navy pilots as Randy Cunningham and others, as well as detailed analysis of dogfights in Vietnam and in the Top Gun school. It's obvious that Robert Wilcox knows his stuff about Naval Aviation.