In Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Marine Corps’ ground campaign
up the Tigris and Euphrates was notable for speed and
aggressiveness unparalleled in military history. Little has been
written, however, of the air support that guaranteed the drive’s
success. Paving the way for the rush to Baghdad was “the hammer
from above”–in the form of attack helicopters, jet fighters,
transport, and other support aircraft. Now a former Marine fighter
pilot shares the gripping never-before-told stories of the Marines
who helped bring to an end the regime of Saddam Hussein.
As Jay Stout reveals, the air war had actually been in the
planning stages ever since the victory of Operation Desert Storm,
twelve years earlier. But when Operation Iraqi Freedom officially
commenced on March 20, 2003, the Marine Corps entered the fight
with an aviation arm at its smallest since before World War II.
Still, with the motto “Speed Equals Success,” the separate air and
ground units acted as a team to get the job done.
Drawing on exclusive interviews with the men and women who flew
the harrowing missions, Hammer from Above reveals how pilots and
their machines were tested to the limits of endurance, venturing
well beyond what they were trained and designed to do. Stout takes
us into the cockpits, revealing what it was like to fly these
intense combat operations for up to eighteen hours at a time and to
face incredible volumes of fire that literally shredded aircraft in
midair during battles like that over An Nasiriyah .
With its dynamic descriptions of perilous flights and bombing
runs, Hammer from Above is a worthy tribute to the men and women
who flew and maintained the aircraft that so inspired their
brothers in arms and terrified the enemy.
From the Hardcover edition.
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