Earl J. McGill

Jet Age Man: SAC B-47 and B-52 Operations in the Early Cold War, by Lt Col Earl J. McGill, is an absolutely fascinating look at the life of a pilot in the Strategic Air Command during the B-47 and early B-52 years. I have to be careful, as too glowing a review is often tossed aside as possibly fake, so please forgive me and let me assure you that I am genuinely this impressed with McGill’s book.
First of all, keep in mind that the author is not only an exceptional pilot, but a great writer as well. That has a lot to do with the quality of the book itself as this genre is usually written by someone else on behalf of the armed forces member.

In Jet Age Man, we are taken into the cockpit of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber, an aircraft seemingly designed to eliminate the pilot population in the US Air Force. I had read in previous books about the aircraft being unstable and suffering from a high loss rate, but until recently, the actual number of aircraft losses were classified. Now the truth is out, and you’ll have great respect for Lt. Col. McGill, simply because he is still alive.

Transferring to the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, McGill meets a totally different aircraft. A stable, long-range bomber designed to hit the target and bring its crew back home, assuming of course that ‘home’ still exists.
I’m going to stop here, simply because, again, I do not want the review to seem unbelievable. If you have any interesting in the Cold War, military aviation, and certainly strategic bombing, you will want to acquire this book. It is well written, incredibly informative, and difficult to put down. I’ve studied the topics covered in Jet Age Man for a large part of my life, and yet, I was amazed at how much more I learned from this book. The five stars says it all.

Reviewed by Daniel L Little on July 11 2018 – www.daniellittle.com… (altro)