Book Review: F-15 Eagle Engaged by Steve Davies and Doug Dildy

What we have here, is a library crown jewel. This book is big. And it's heavy. And I consider it the number one go-to book about the F-15 Eagle. There are plenty (even a glut) of other books that show 3-way diagrams, detail photographs, and the same developmental histories and Desert Store stories about the F-15 out there. But this one goes above and beyond them.

The book is written by a team of a long-time proven aviation author, and an F-15 pilot. The rest of the info comes from McDonnell-Douglas, Boeing, the USAF, and F-15 pilots. But it's not one of those let's keep it professional, boys books. The stories ROCK. Everything from Red Flag to Zulu Scrambles to the most detailed accounts of many, many F-15 kills over the USAF's history with the bird. Amazing, awesome book. But not excellent, or perfect.

The book royally snubs the Air National Guard. It kindly mentions them in passing, pausing to talk about the F-15 Superbase MOGAR, but ignores the other ANG squadrons. Florida. Oregon. There were so many tales to tell here. How about the 142nd's Incredible Safety Record (which, I believe at the printing of this book, was untarnished). And what about Chuck Yeager's Anniversary Sound-Barrier Breaking F-15 ride in a 173rd FW Eagle? Written by former and active USAF pilots, maybe, culturally, I should have expected the Guard snub, but there's a little, "Come on, guys." on top of that. And the sinegl 123rd F-15 photograph it does show is a horrible, unflattering pic. There were so many others they could have chosen- and the 173rd's jets with their distinctive diving Bald Eagle is not anywhere in the book.

The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) and the Israeli Air Force (IAF- and yes, I know they recently changed their name I just can't think of it off the top of my head. It's a blog, not a professional paper) were also completely cast aside, with only paragraphs out of the whole book about them. The RSAF, ok, the only thing they've gotten out of the jet, history-wise, is a double kill during the Gulf War. Wait a minute, a double kill? And those of you in the know remember there was a whole other story behind that tale. Why wasn't that included in the book? It would be a great instance of man plus machine makes the difference.

And the IAF? The USAF has only scored 1/3 of the reported 104+ official kills the F-15 has mustered. The Israeli Air Force made the other 2/3. They gave the Eagle its reputation long before a single USAF pilot entered Iraqi airspace. How can you pass that up? And it can also be argued that they're taken their airframes farther ahead technologically than we have with ours, and waaaayyy before we did, too. They should have gotten more of a shake in this book.

Well, those gripes aside, the book is still big. Perhaps if it had been renamed "F-15: USAF Eagles Engaged" or something like that. But with the massive amount of history, data and tales is has, it is still a dominant authority on most things F-15... development, history, pilot views, air combat accounts, and so on. If you've got a big, strong coffee table or a nice big book shelf, get it and put it there. And read it lots.