| Punk's Wing |  | Author: Ward Carroll
Publisher: Signet / New American Library
Category: Book
Buy New: $1.58
New (8) Used (5) from $1.58
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 2027732
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 376
ISBN: 0739434551
EAN: 9780739434550
ASIN: 0739434551
Publication Date: 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
As if flying for the Navy isn't dangerous enough... The only female aviator in Rick "Punk" Reichert's fighter class rolls wildly during a hop, almost causing a deadly disaster. Punk is initially skeptical of her assertion that faulty equipment is to blame. But when a similar accident claims the life of a fellow instructor, Punk begins to suspect a cover-up involving the use of faulty parts. Just as he starts creating waves with allegations, his squadron is activated to pursue a more urgent matter--the War on Terrorism.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 maybe the greatest naval-aviation novel written May 2, 2005
Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is probably the most powerful tome to come out of nav-air since "Flight of the Intruder" during the mid 1980's. "Wing" is actually the 2nd of three books - all worthy reads - but surpasses them all. "War" introduced Rick "Punk" Reichert, the pilot-half of a two-man crew dedicated to flying the F-14 fighter. Though it's an adventurous job, "War" set itself above other techno thrillers or mil-av novels by painfully depicting just how hard a job it really was to fly high-performance fighter jets from aircraft carriers. The Tomcats of the Punk novels are incredible airplanes - but they're also trouble-prone, and are light-years away from the high-tech dream machines of the Dale Brown books. More tellingly, the fliers who populate "Punk's War" and its sequels are nuanced, fallible and typically display more of a dramatic range than you'd expect from a single-page character dossier. In "War", Reichert flew Tomcats in the Iraqi skies between the two Gulf wars. In "Fight", Reichert will endure combat on the ground after he's forced to bail-out over Afghanistan in the wake of the 9-11 attacks.
In "Wing", Reichert has a more sedate job - a summer job as an F-14 instructor working on the shore. Though it's not as rigorous as sea-duty - with possible combat or the nightly horror of having to land on carriers in the dark - teaching raw cadets how to fly the F-14 proves to have its own hazards. Most of those deal with "Muddy" Waters - a woman whose advancement as a Tomcat driver has attracted politicians and politically minded naval officers. But Punk also has to contend with a mysterious problem plaguing F-14's - one that proves tragic in one case. Punk also has to deal with slippery defense contractors out to pin the F-14 problems on pilot error. But the biggest problem turns out to be a matter of timing: the blissful summer, we learn, is actually the summer of 2001. By the end of the novel, Punk will have left behind his cozy shore-side billet for the no-margin-for-error battlefront, and will have to rely on help from his untried trainees.
From cover to cover, "Punk's Wing" proves the best of the series, and perhaps one the best military aviation novels ever written. The characters are full-bodied, but author Carroll wisely restricts the novel's POV to Punk Reichert himself. Though the novel is chock full of the sort of highly arcane and technical details you'd normally find in a technothriller, Carroll uses them to drive his story demonstrate varying degrees of expertise among his aviators, unlike other authors who use excessive and typically irrelevant technical detail to cover up threadbare writing skills, characters and plots, and otherwise create a sense of realism that really isn't there. (Carroll gets some good shots at technothriller writers when he skewers the researcher for one in the aftermath of the WTC attacks.) Carroll also covers much ground - from basic airmanship in the F-14 to the horrors of night flying to the rigors of long-distance flight. Every military aviation author claims to make his readers feel like they're at the controls - but Punk delivers the goods.
 Great Series! Great Writer! November 17, 2004
Paul Croisetiere (Lexington Park, MD United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read all of Ward Carroll's books and find them remarkably accurate and the characters interesting and believable. While all of his characters are fictional, I find attributes of real people and characters I have served with in all of them. Of Carroll's many talents as a writer, I think one of his most extraordinary is his ability to create characters who are very real.
In all of his work, Carroll takes on or recreates stereotypes from his undergraduate institution, the U.S. Naval Academy, other (non F-14) aircraft communities, and from the Navy's intelligence and public affairs communities as well. He also offers every reader great leadership lessons through the 'bad' leadership of many of his senior leader characters, great lessons in officer-enlisted relationships, and just what it is like to be in an operational squadron.
Woven throughout Carroll's work is a great sense of humor, born out of too many tours at sea, and relationships with those from blue collar America who are really the backbone of the Naval Service. My favorite quote - "We're not gay, we're in the Navy!"
I consider all of Carroll's books a great read and I anxiously await the next!
A Must Read for Naval Aviation Buffs! October 31, 2004
Thomas J. Recktenwalt (Dayton, Ohio)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ward Carroll has written another spellbinder! All three of his "Punk's series are "must reads" for any serious student of carrier operations and naval aviation. Mr. Carroll's descriptions are very good and his plots make it difficult to put down one of his (now four) "Punk's" books.
Thomas J. Recktenwalt
Former U.S. Navy Carrier sailor
Dayton, Ohio
He's done it again! June 9, 2004
E. Tavares (Lexington Park, MD United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ward Carroll nailed it again! Great story of the true world of the military aviator--struggling to balance the flying he loves with the other 'distractions' he faces. Well narrated with a 'there I was' feel, Mr. Carroll puts you in the cockpit as he deals with both the trivial and the deadly. Well done!
Another hit from the next Stephen Coonts March 29, 2004
Robert M. Courtney (Knoxville, Tennessee)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In this sequel to "Punk's War," author Ward Carroll takes the reader into the world of the modern naval aviator. The pilots it describes come form the generation that grew up watching Tom Cruise "feeling the need for speed," only to discover that U.S. Navy pilots fight some of their most difficult battles when they're NOT in the cockpit. Carroll's three novels (Punk's War, Punk's Wing, and Punk's Fight) are must-reads for anyone who wants to know what the military pilot's world is truly like.(NOTE: a previous reviewer fabricated a list of errors that either do not occur in the book or are greatly exaggerated. Carroll knows his stuff.)
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