DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9709250517

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: By Bill Roach

                                            LENGTH:   89 lines

FROM THE MILITARY SHELF

BOGEYS AND BANDITS

The Making of a Fighter Pilot

ROBERT GANDT

Viking. 324 pp. $22.95.

Bogeys and Bandits has arguably the best description of what fighter pilots go through as they prepare to put their lives on the line day after day in the most difficult arenas of the world.

Robert Gandt is a former Navy flier who is now a Delta Airlines pilot. Thirty years after he first went through jet fighter training he spent six months at Jacksonville, Fla.'s Cecil Field and on board the carrier USS Nimitz as he requalified for Navy flying. He takes the reader along in this pulse-pounding recital of that retraining as he and seven other men and women learn how to fly the FA-18 Hornet. Gandt puts you right in the cockpit - as well as in the classrooms, homes and watering holes of the ``nuggets,'' what the pilots call the untested learners.

WINGS OF FURY

From Vietnam to the Gulf War - Astonishing True Stories of America's Elite Fighter Pilots

ROBERT WILCOX

Pocket Books. 325 pp. $24.

Robert Wilcox's Scream of Eagles told the story of the founding of Topgun during the Vietnam War. Wings of Fury, which brings together a collection of the top fighter pilots who flew in the Gulf War, is essentially its sequel.

Wilcox chronicles the legendary Joe Satrapa and Dale Snodgrass and describes the 1981 shootdown of enemy planes. He also includes Rob Graeter, who had two ``kills'' in the Gulf War, as well as naval fighter pilots Brian Fitzpatrick and Mark Fox, who played ``prominent roles in the Gulf War.'' Wilcox not only describes the training and performance of these pilots but also the transformation of aerial warfare.

BEYOND THE WILD BLUE

A History of the U.S. Air Force 1947-1997

COL. WALTER J. BOYNE, USAF, RET.

St. Martin's Press. 442 pp. $29.95.

In Beyond the Wild Blue, Walter J. Boyne provides an uncritical look at the U.S. Air Force and its 50 years. The author of nearly 30 books, fiction and nonfiction, the retired Air Force colonel writes authoritatively about the developments in military flying and the people involved in its growth.

Boyne knowledgeably describes combat operations, particularly in the Korean War, but also in the Vietnam War, in a way that is easily understood by the nontechnical reader. He is extremely harsh in his treatment of bureaucrats and politicians - especially former Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara - but he pushes the envelope in his claims about the Air Force's role in Desert Storm.

THE COAST GUARD AT WAR

Vietnam 1965-1975

ALEX LARZELERE

Naval Institute Press. 384 pp. $32.95.

The Coast Guard at War is the first chronicle of Coast Guard operations during the Vietnam War. The on-the-scene descriptions and stories of combat are vivid and provide a comprehensive picture of the Coast Guard's wartime role.

Alex Larzelere was a patrol-boat skipper in Vietnam. His book is well-researched and documented by interviews with 75 other ``Coasties'' who were there. The range of operations is extensive - including search and rescue, naval gunfire support, port security and junk and trawler interdiction.

MORE THAN A UNIFORM

A Navy Woman in a Navy Man's World

CAPT. WINIFRED QUICK COLLINS WITH HERBERT M. LEVINE

University of North Texas Press. 241 pp. $19.

The subtitle tells the theme of this narrative about a woman who ``progressed from pioneer to the leader of other pioneers,'' as the late Admiral Arleigh Burke writes in the foreword to More Than a Uniform.

Winifred Quick was among the first group of 119 women who entered the Navy in 1942. She was commissioned as an ensign in the WAVES and in 20 years became a Navy captain and chief of naval personnel for women. Her book is a first-person account of her 20 years in sea service.

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