NF

Every Man a Tiger (1999) is Tom Clancy's second book in his "Study in Command" series. It is partially a biography of General Chuck Horner (CENTAF during Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield), but mostly it is a study of the command decisions, preparations, and execution of air war of Operation Desert Storm.
The book is mostly written by Tom Clancy with sections where he uses General Horner's own words.
KIRKUS REVIEW:...partners with Horner, a Vietnam fighter pilot who rose to general and commander of the Desert Storm air offensive, to narrate the Gulf War from the top commanders” vantage point. The duo portray an air-warrior culture shaped by the perennial possibility of death, whether in the exacting training or in combat. Horner describes the strange rules of engagement dictated to the military in Vietnam from LBJ’s far-off Washington, where politicians often bypassed the advice of military leaders in a policy of “Graduated Pressure” that prolonged the war and caused casualties to mount. Clancy credits young Vietnam-era officers like Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Horner with correcting the mistakes of that war by reforming the Army and Air Force while building the greatest, most effective armed forces in history. The result was a quick victory with few casualties over Iraq’s huge army. Readers get a detailed description of the air offensive and the victory in Kuwait and Iraq of a successful coalition of Arab, European, and American ground troops. There are snapshots of Schwarzkopf (the short fused, perfectionist Commander-in-Chief, who could not bear the agony of losing any of his beloved ground troops), Powell, President Bush, Secretary Cheney, and the Arab high commanders.

Every Man A Tiger primarily covers the planning, the problems, and execution of the Gulf War air campaign through writing of Tom Clancy and it's commander General Chuck Horner. Instead of giving a blow-by-blow account of the Gulf War's air operations from August 1990 to March 1991, Clancy and Horner decided to give background of not only it's commander (Horner) but of the U.S. Air Force that deployed to Saudi Arabia in the fall of 1990. The quick, but thorough biography of Horner went hand in hand with a history of the Air Force especially on how the service almost collapsed during and immediately after Vietnam then how it was rebuilt into an effective fighting force by the time of the Gulf War.

This background information served well as Clancy and Horner described the planning of the Air Campaign, primarily how Horner along with other Vietnam veterans wanted to avoid the mistakes of the past as well as tackling the challenges of creating a Coalition Air Force. Once the war started, the authors wrote about various challenges that Horner and his command faced throughout the six weeks of exclusive air operations before the ground war began.

The thoroughness of this process is a highlight of this book. I have seen some reviews that dislike the biographical portion of Ever Man A Tiger and while I understand some of their compliants, however Horner's biography and the accompany history of the U.S. Air Force was integral in knowing why the air campaign was planned as it was. I will admit that I did get bogged down at times when the details got too technical, but those times were few and far between. Overall I recommend this book for anyone interested in an in-depth look at the planning and execution of military affairs related to the Gulf War or the Air Force. ( )

Two topics:
The development of USA's Air Force is outlined in the expected glowing terms.

More interestingly, and the reason to read this book, Chuck Horner's story of how he led the Air Force in Desert Shield/Desert Storm. ( )

I wish I could give negative stars - I'll summarise what this book has to say:
The American Air Force it great
It has great weapons
and the best tactics
and did I mention it was great?
and that it had the best people?
There's this one guy who was really cool - no seriously cool - look he did all these cool things like blowing stuff up - even when people didn't want him to blow it up.
Did I mention that the Air force is really cool and has the best weapons? Yes? Oh well it is very true so I'll mention it again! It has the best people and the best training you know because they're all so very very cool and hip and so American and well just generally great...
Repeat for more pages than any bookshelf should have to suffer holding. No book ever deserves burning, but in this case it's because it'd be an insult to the flames. ( )