"Dale Brown - Sky Masters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dale)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my friend Lieutenant Colonel George Peck (who was instrumental in the
research for Day of the Cheetah and who, like Loki's eternal fate in
Norse mythology, seems destined to be forever bothered by my insistent
questions and requests); TSgt Alan Dockery, Captain Harry G. Edwards,
and the other helpful and professional persons in the Office of Public
Affairs, Headquarters, Strategic Air Command (SAC), Offutt AFB,
Nebraska, for their assistance in gathering information on SAC
conventional and maritime operations and the Strategic Warfare Center,
and for their help in reviewing the manuscript; To all the men and women
of the Strategic Air Command and Pacific Air Forces whom I met during
GIANT WARRIOR '90, a multinational, multiservice combat strike and
deployment exercise conducted by SAC's Fifteenth Air Force in August of
1990 at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. I wish to especially thank
Lieutenant General Robert D. Beckel, Fifteenth Air Force commander, for
allowing me the privilege of observing his super exercise; Brigadier
General DavidJ. Pederson, Third Air Division commander, and Colonel Alan
Cirino, Third Air Division deputy commander, and their staff for their
hospitality and helpfulness in explaining the intricacies of Pacific
theater combat operations; and to Colonel Arne Weinman, Ninety-second
Bomb Wing commander and joint air forces commander of GIANT WARRIOR '90;
Special thanks to Captain Cynthia Colin, Fifteenth Air Force Public
Affairs, and the other professionals at Fifteenth Air Force Public
Affairs, March AFB, California; MSgt Ron Pack, Ninety-second Bomb Wing
public affairs; MSgt Al Dostal, Ninety-sixth Bomb Wing Public Affairs;
Second Lieutenant Darian "Slick" Benson, Fifty-seventh Air Division
Public Affairs; the feared terrorist-group-turned-media-pool known
throughout the Pacific as the Dream Team; and everyone who helped make
my visit to Guam and GIANT WARRIOR '90a pleasure and a success; To
Brigadier General Larry Dilda, DCS I Communications and Computer
Operations, HQ SAC, for conducting a very special tour of SAC
Headquarters, where I learned much about the "new" Strategic Air Command
and its people and its new arsenal of weapons; and to Ron Silverstein,
B-2 Project Senior Engineer and Chief Spokesman, and the others at
Northrop Corporation, Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, for an
amazing tour of the B-2 bomber assembly facilities; To Colonel Thomas A.
Hornung, Chief of Public Affairs, Air Force Public Affairs-Western
Region in Los Angeles, for his invaluable assistance throughout the
making of Sky Masters and for arranging a spectacular tour of SAC
headquarters; and to Major Ron Fuchs, former Deputy and Chief of Media
Relations in Los Angeles, for his time in reviewing the manuscript and
offering some valuable comments; To CDR Bruce R. Linder, commanding
officer of the guided missile frigate FFG-55 USS Elrod, who was
extremely helpful in providing details pertaining to naval operations in
the South China Sea, Palawan Passage, and the Philippines; To Richard
Herman, famous author of Warbirds and Force of Eagles, for his technical
knowledge on aerial combat in the F-4E and other facets of fighter
combat; To Rockwell International for information on the B- 1 bomber;