Carrier (Tom Clancy's Military Reference)

Once again, Clancy and series collaborator John D. Gresham take the reader where no ordinary civilian can easily go. From the Pentagon office of Admiral Jay Johnson (who at the time was Chief of Naval Operations) to the bustling -- and dangerous -- flight deck of the Nimitz-class USS Harry S Truman, the authors explain the role of the modern carrier group in today's world, as well as describing each ship -- from carrier to guided missile escorts -- and aircraft that makes the CVBG the "big stick" of American foreign policy.

At the time of publication (2000), the Navy was still in the midst of the transition from large 90 aircraft carrier air wings (CAW), and strike pilots were completing the handover of air-to-ground attack missions from the venerable A-6 Intruder to the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. Other changes discussed by Clancy and Gresham are the eventual phasing out of the F-14 Tomcat, the long-range interceptor made famous by Tom Cruise's 1986 mega-hit Top Gun. Although still a formidable aircraft, the Tomcat -- which has never fired its prime long range missile, the Phoenix, in combat -- is now a 32-year-old design and due to be replaced by late generation F/A-18 Hornet variants and the new Joint Strike Fighter now in development.

As in all the Guided Tour books, there are chapters devoted to all the elements that make a CVBG such a valuable fleet asset. Much of the book focuses on the Nimitz-class carrier's design, construction, power plant (or at least as much as the Navy will allow the authors to divulge for security reasons), and the embarked air wing. However, Clancy emphasizes the human element and describes the training and daily lives of the sailors and airmen that operate the various ships and aircraft of the CVBG.

Clancy also continues the tradition of ending his Guided Tour books with a short but entertaining fictional account of a unit in action. In this case, the author looks forward at the world in 2016, pitting the United States in a short but fierce confrontation with India after "the world's largest democracy" has a nuclear exchange with its Muslim neighbor Pakistan and becomes erratic in its foreign policy.

Although Clancy is hardly objective when writing about the military -- he clearly loves the services -- he does provide the public valuable insights into what the Navy does and the tasks our men and women in uniform perform daily in times of war and peace. Carrier, therefore, is an informative and entertaining primer on today's Navy...and tells the reader exactly why every President since World War II has asked, in times of crisis, "where are the carriers?"

I was surprised at the number of countries that also have aircraft carriers not to mention the different types the U.S has. Clancy takes us through a long inventory of all the different countries that have aircraft carriers today, what kind of ships they are and what are the strengths and weaknesses of the model. Another interesting part of the book was the description of all the countries currently making the aircraft carriers and how good / bad they are at it. I enjoyed the fact that the catapult technology really only comes the U.S. as no one else has mastered it.

Overall this was an interesting, easy to read and very informative book. If you are interested in aircraft carriers then this should be your first stopping point. A good book well worth the money.

The most enjoyable parts of the book for me were the descriptions of the pilot training (and the amazing prowess of Navy flyers who have to catch a "string" upon landing so they don't fly right off the deck), life aboard a carrier and the interview with the navy official. The chapters devoted to the layout and structure of the carriers were less interesting from my point of view.

A very detailed approach to carriers and their role in protecting our role in world affairs.

As good as this book is, there are many things I simply didn't like about this book. First of all, the book was very idealistic and was more of a propoganda work rather than some kind of reference book. For example, when Clancy explains the air wing layouts, he claims that a certain air wing with less fighters but more striking ability can hit more targets on land and the older 90 plane air wing's land-attack capability was much more limited. He doesn't know that, does he? He never took into consideration that the carriers during the Cold War never actually fought, so it can't be safely said that such and such an air wing is more capable than the other. He also doesn't consider the amount of threats in the world today when talking about the less ships and planes, the more effective. He even says that the current naval aviation structure is much better and is less complicated, when he doesn't even know how effective the previous standings were and how bad things are getting in the world. Also, when talking about the new carriers, he doesn't consider the complications such a program would make and believes carriers are simple "help the needy" machines when they are actually powerful weapons of war. Nor does he ever mention anything about the serious costs that future programs will take and just goes rambling about how cool things will be and how much better things will get. All this, in a way, insults the Navy, because it shows them as a group that simply just buys expensive stuff and doesn't care about their task at hand.

Another thing that was seriously flawed was the explaination of missions and tactics and the fiction. The missions are well shown, but they are not fully explained. They are also described in a way as being"totally effective," which is not true. it takes more than just a carrier to win a war. The tactics are also shown as being 100% effective, also not true. Finally, as someone from India has stated, the fiction was not only short and screwed up, it totally defaces what India is really like. It shows them as ruthess, evil conquistadors, without ever really considering everything to the story. The news report showing the destruction of the Indian ship was totally unreal and propogandic. No such thing would take place, especially when sensitive information is present and would surely have been censored.

Overall, this book was pretty good, but there were many errors and was very biased, propgandic and based on the authors mind. next time, Clancy should write it like a real reference book, accurate to the last detail, unbiased, realistic, or never write non-fiction again. Maybe he jsut didn't know what he was talking about.