Air Warriors: The Inside Story of the Making of a Navy Pilot

A thrilling, behind-the-scenes account of a remarkable group of male and female Navy Top Gun pilot trainees, whose stories provide an intimacy never captured in movies or on the television news.Investigative journalist Doug Waller, who wrote The Commandos after observing the training of special forces soldiers, now chronicles the training of Top Gun pilots in Air Warriors. This time out, Waller provides even more exhilarating, you-are-there details -- because he was granted permission to actually participate in the pilots' grueling training program.From his birds-eye view in the passenger seat, Waller follows each Top Gun trainee through two years of intense preparation, documenting aerial dog fights that leave the pilots reeling with nausea; stomach-swallowing dive-bombing runs; high-speed tactical maneuvers that graze the desert floor; and one heart-stopping landing and take-off after another.Hurtling through the air at death-defying speeds, these pilots-in-training struggle to maintain their composure while surviving exercises that are designed to challenge them to the very limits of human endurance. In the tradition of George Plimpton, Waller offers a gripping and utterly extraordinary story that will inspire and amaze military readers -- or anyone who loves a heroic human interest story.