Apprentice Warrior
REVIEWS:
Author William Whitson is certainly to be congratulated
for his sense of history. I rarely read fiction
in which the author has done his homework in such uncommonly
accurate details, the sort of accuracy which is professionally
woven into the historical novels of authors like Herman
Wouk and Louis L'Amour.
I am both relieved and grateful to report that Apprentice
Warrior is not one of those Hardy-Boys-Learn-to-Fly or
Dick-Cole-at-West-Point books of the 1930s intended to
inspire naive youth. It is a well-thought out and
well-research document. The reader can't finish
the book without picking up hundred of new facts.
Whitson's technical accuracy is great, but his historical
accuracy is superb. His dialogues return to that
venerable questions which are the most important academic
endeavors at the service academies, engineering or the
humanities? As I look back on the recent mistakes
of our civilian and military leaders, I reflect that
nearly all of their mistakes have come about not because
of their lack of technical expertise, but because of
their ignorance of history.
– Frederick V. Malmstrom
USAF Academy
Whitson has undertaken an immense literary
challenge in this book-- to blend the harshly practical
world of the military mind and the brutal history of
World War I's air war with the deepest thoughts of the
world's mystics and philosophers. There are exponential
rewards for Old Grads and Young Turks who have a bent
to absorb both. In perhaps the novel's most fascinating
exchange... David Harrison gives the best description
of the exaltation of flight this reviewer has ever read.
– Thomas Fleming in ASSEMBLY
March-April,
2004
The novel keeps you wanting to turn
to the next page. His understanding of aviation, its
early history and the thoughts that go through a young
man's mind during combat make this a must read for all
aspiring young aviators and those not so young who are
interested in aviation. A really great book!
– General Robert Mathis
former Vice Chief
of Staff
US Air Force
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