Viper Pilot: A Memoir of Air Combat - Softcover

Hampton, Dan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006213034X ISBN 13: 9780062130341

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2013

Synopsis

"Viper Pilot" is the high-octane memoir of one of America's elite aviators: a twenty-year battle-seasoned pilot who flew 151 combat missions in the world's most iconic fighter plane - the F-16 Fighting Falcon - the Viper as its pilots call it. A fighter pilot who came of age at the end of the Cold War, Dan Hampton was one of the flyers scrambled into the skies on 9/11. With the onset of the Iraq War, he saw extensive action and was one of the Wild Weasels, a select cadre of highly trained, innovative, and gutsy fighters who flew into hostile territory first to draw enemy fire-revealing the positions of their antiaircraft weaponry for our forces to destroy. For his actions Hampton received an extraordinary three Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor and a Purple Heart. As a young flyer a decade earlier, he flew combat sorties in the first Gulf War and the Kosovo conflict. Hampton takes readers into rarefied air: the closed world of fighter pilots and modern air combat, offering a fascinating look into the mind and making of those elite few who have "the right stuff." He recounts gripping stories of saving American soldiers on the ground from certain death, of evading heat-seeking missiles that were locked on his tail, and of being wounded in an enemy's air strike on his base. He also reveals what it takes both mentally and physically to become the best of the best. A thrilling true story of courage and commitment rife with excitement, danger, and glory, "Viper Pilot" is one remarkable man's tale of what's like to be a true hero of the skies.

About this title

Review:

"Dramatic. ... "Viper Pilot" delivers 300 pages of aviation fireworks." --Kirkus Reviews

From the Back Cover:

151 combat missions
21 hard kills on surface -to -air missile sites
4 Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor
1 Purple Heart

First into a war zone, flying behind enemy lines to purposely draw fire, the wild weasels are elite fighter squadrons with the most dangerous job in the Air Force

One of the greatest aviation memoirs ever written, Viper Pilot is an Air Force legend's thrilling eyewitness account of modern air warfare. For twenty years, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Hampton was a leading member of the Wild Weasels, logging 608 combat hours in the world's most iconic fighter jet: the F-16 "Fighting Falcon," or "Viper." He spearheaded the 2003 invasion of Iraq, leading the first flight of fighters over the border en route to strike Baghdad. Earlier, on 9/11, Hampton's father was inside the Pentagon when it was attacked; with his dad's fate unknown, Hampton was scrambled into American skies and given the unprecedented orders to shoot down any unidentified aircraft. Viper Pilot is an unforgettable look into the closed world of fighter pilots and modern air combat.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 006213034X
• ISBN 13: 9780062130341
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384