7/2/2023 0 Comments Flight of the intruder![]() In fact, I admit I was so invested in Jake and Tiger that when the story abruptly ended I was left wanting. The book is well written and the characters are developed very well. I'm not sure I "3 star" liked it but I can't justify a "2 star" rating. ![]() I might have referred to the women that way if I had been in the Philippines in 1972, but today the term troubles me.Īll in all, this 1986 Best Seller has not withstood the test of time. I cringed as I read of the brothels in the Philippines, and how the young women are referred to as LBFMs, or Little Brown Fucking Machines. Many of the ethical questions of 1972 are non-issues today and so the ethical dilemmas no longer have the same impact. Perhaps a similar incident did occur in the war, but the author does not make me believe it. This did not bother me in 1991, but today I have a hard time believing that an American Naval pilot would risk his career and future with so blatant an action. Navy authorities discover the incident, and Jake and his new friend are Court Martialed, but get off on a technicality. ![]() So Jake and his new bomber/navigator hatch a plan to bomb the city of Hanoi without authorization. Jake is shaken when his friend is killed, but we only know the friend for the first chapter of the story, and it’s hard to feel Jake’s pain. The main character, Jake Grafton, the pilot of the A6 is upset when his bomber/navigator is killed while on a routine bombing mission of some non-existing truck park. And then the main plot, about an illegal bombing by the main characters, of the city of Hanoi just does not ring true. However, as has been pointed out by other reviews here, the main characters lack depth to make us really care about them. The book is very much in the style of a Tom Clancy techno-thriller. So the novel is quite enjoyable just for its portrayal of life aboard an aircraft carrier. Now, I was in the Navy during the Vietnam War though I never left the state of California. Unfortunately, I was not quite as enamored with this story as I was in 1991. I’d kind of forgotten the details of the novel, so I decided I might enjoy reading it again. The story is about an American Navy pilot who flies an A6 Intruder bomber off a US carrier and bombs targets in North Vietnam. I first read this book in 1991 and enjoyed it very much I gave it 4 stars. This book was published in 1986 and concerns events that happened in 1972. Learn more about Stephen Coonts on the Macmillan website. Today Coonts continues to write, having had seventeen New York Times bestsellers (out of 20 books), and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife and son. He has written several other series and stand-alone novels since then, but is most notable for the Grafton books. From there he continued writing adventure-mysteries using the character from his first book, Jake Grafton. Intruder, based in part on his experiences as a bomber pilot, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover and launched his career as a novelist. He published short stories in a number of publications before writing Flight of the Intruder in 1986 (made into a movie in 1991). He then worked as an oil and gas lawyer for several companies, entertaining his writing interests in his free time. Bryant who later became a Rear Admiral and deputy commander-in-chief of the US naval forces in Europe.Īfter being honorably discharged from duty as a lieutenant in 1977, Coonts pursued a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the University of Colorado, graduating in 1979. His navigator-bombardier was LTjg Stanley W. After the war he served as a flight instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz (CVN-68). He accumulated 1600 hours in the A-6 Intruder and earned a number of Navy commendations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. He entered the Navy the following year and flew an A-6 Intruder medium attack plane during the Vietnam War, where he served on two combat cruises aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). degree in political science at West Virginia University in 1968. Stephen Coonts (born July 19, 1946) is an American thriller and suspense novelist.Ĭoonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town and earned an B.A.
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