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John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever -- the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft -- the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story.

Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. And in one of the most startling and unknown stories of modern military history, the Air Force fighter pilot taught the U.S. Marine Corps how to fight war on the ground. His ideas led to America's swift and decisive victory in the Gulf War and foretold the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

On a personal level, Boyd rarely met a general he couldn't offend. He was loud, abrasive, and profane. A man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes -- a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune but for his country. He was a true patriot, a man who made a career of challenging the shortsighted and self-serving Pentagon bureaucracy. America owes Boyd and his disciples -- the six men known as the "Acolytes" -- a great debt.

Robert Coram finally brings to light the remarkable story of a man who polarized all who knew him, but who left a legacy that will influence the military -- and all of America -- for decades to come . . .

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments(p. ix)
• Prologue: Reminiscences(p. 3)
• Part 1 Fighter Pilot
• 1. Haunted Beginnings(p. 13)
• 2. The Big Jock and the Presbyterian(p. 30)
• 3. Fledgling(p. 39)
• 4. K-13 and MiG Alley(p. 49)
• 5. High Priest(p. 58)
• 6. Pope John Goes Severely Supersonic(p. 75)
• 7. Rat-Racing(p. 90)
• 8. Forty-Second Boyd and the Tactics Manual(p. 101)
• Part 2 Engineer
• 9. Thermo, Entropy, and the Breakthrough(p. 123)
• 10. P[subscript s]=[T-D/W] V(p. 135)
• 11. The Sugarplum Fairy Spreads the Gospel(p. 154)
• 12. Pull the Wings Off and Paint It Yellow(p. 169)
• 13. "I've Never Designed a Fighter Plane Before."(p. 188)
• 14. Bigger-Higher-Faster-Farther(p. 202)
• 15. Saving the F-15(p. 221)
• 16. Ride of the Valkyries(p. 232)
• 17. The Fighter Mafia Does the Lord's Work(p. 243)
• 18. A Short-Legged Bird(p. 257)
• 19. Spook Base(p. 266)
• 20. Take a Look at the B-1(p. 278)
• 21. "This Briefing Is for Information Purposes Only."(p. 290)
• 22. The Buttonhook Turn(p. 305)
• Part 3 Scholar
• 23. Destruction and Creation(p. 317)
• 24. OODA Loop(p. 327)
• 25. Reform(p. 345)
• 26. The Great Wheel of Conspiracy(p. 360)
• 27. Boyd Joins the Marines(p. 369)
• 28. Semper Fi(p. 380)
• 29. Water-Walker(p. 398)
• 30. They Think I'm a Kook(p. 413)
• 31. The Ghetto Colonel and the SecDef(p. 420)
• Epilogue: El Cid Rides On(p. 437)
• Appendix "Destruction and Creation"(p. 451)
• Sources(p. 463)
• Bibliography(p. 465)
• Index(p. 471)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

John Boyd (1927-1997) was a brilliant and blazingly eccentric person. He was a crackerjack jet fighter pilot, a visionary scholar and an innovative military strategist. Among other things, Boyd wrote the first manual on jet aerial combat, was primarily responsible for designing the F-15 and the F-16 jet fighters, was a leading voice in the post-Vietnam War military reform movement and shaped the smashingly successful U.S. military strategy in the Persian Gulf War. His writings and theories on military strategy remain influential today, particularly his concept of the "OODA (Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action) Loop," which all the military services-and many business strategists-use to this day. Boyd also was a brash, combative, iconoclastic man, not above insulting his superiors at the Pentagon (both military and civilian); he made enemies (and fiercely loyal acolytes) everywhere he went. His strange, mercurial personality did not mesh with a military career, making his 24 years in the Air Force (1951-1975) difficult professionally and causing serious emotional problems for Boyd's wife and children. Coram's worthy biography is deeply researched and detailed, down to describing the fine technical points of some of Boyd's theories. A Boyd advocate (he "contributed as much to fighter aviation as any man in the history of the Air Force," Coram notes), Coram does not shy away from Boyd's often self-defeating abrasiveness and the neglect and mistreatment of his long-suffering wife and children, and keeps the story of a unique life moving smoothly and engagingly.(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

The late Colonel John Boyd, United States Air Force, began his career as a supremely proficient fighter pilot in the Korean War, after which he went on to develop the concept of energy maneuvering that has been the basis for fighter tactics and designs for 30 years. He proceeded militantly to advocate simpler fighter designs and attracted a group of like-minded civilian and uniformed reformers, known as the Acolytes, who were mostly as unorthodox as he. After his retirement, he developed strategic concepts based on the velocity of attack, which, while they may not be as original as Coram claims, reminded the armed forces of velocity of attack at a time when they direly needed reminding. On the personal front, Boyd, the product of a dysfunctional family, generated another, which doesn't make pretty reading. The sheer mass of information Coram pumps out requires some military knowledge, if only not to be taken in by all of Coram's claims about Boyd, and such knowledgeable readers will most appreciate this study of an American military reformer. Roland Green.

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Robert Coram lives in Atlanta.