I’ll never look at soft ice cream the same way again after reading Tomcat Rio.
Auto-Dog… I’ll just leave that there.
Dave Baranek’s entertaining and informative autobiography is a great read for anyone who has ever wondered what a graduate of the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, or Top Gun to the rest of us, does after he has finished dodging Viper and Jester and collected the Top Gun trophy *.
* Disclaimer – I don’t think Dave won the Top Gun trophy, in fact I’m not even sure there is one.
Dave Baranek, callsign ‘Bio’ because his name is pronounced to rhyme with Bionic, is a retired United States Navy Radar Intercept Officer, or RIO (think Goose), who used to spend his working life flying F-14 Tomcats off the US Navy’s biggest and best aircraft carriers in all sorts of world trouble spots, as well as some pretty cool port visits too.
I really enjoyed reading his account of life in the Navy and his flying anecdotes. I like that the US Navy has a “you’ve been at sea for 45 days boys, have a beer” rule, and, as a pilot myself, I was also comforted by the stories of quick decision making regarding whether or not an aircraft was serviceable and the human element of “I don’t want to miss this one” that fed into it that ‘go-no go’ decision.
The book is beautifully presented in hard back, lavishly illustrated with many colour photographs that help back up the text, which leads me on to my next point. Normally a book has a glossary to explain points that may have gone over the readers head, which this book does too, but for more in depth explanations, Dave breaks the story and includes short chapters called ‘Intel Brief’. These explain a particular facet or story point to help the reader keep up with the pace of the book. Its a great concept, and one I might nick for my next book… Cheers Dave 😉
Overall I think this is a great book that gives you an insight into a role that many people know little about, the back seat guy. What does he do? How does he feel on approach to a carrier landing sat in the back of a Tomcat, but with no flying controls. I couldn’t imagine it, but Dave’s book has given me a pretty good idea of the level of mutual trust and respect that each flight crew had.
Still not sure I would want to back seat for a carrier landing though…
Anyway, if you’re short of reading material during Lockdown 2.0, or want to enjoy learning a little more of what really goes on when a Navy squadron gets an ‘Admin’ set up in a downtown hotel during a port visit, then get your hands on Dave’s book, you won’t regret it.
Dan Roach Flying Author 