Gabby: A Fighter Pilot's Life (Schiffer Military History)

The paperback book was quite old and I didn';t expect much in the way of quality. It was described as in good condition. It arrived within the expected time frame. I thumbed through it and examined the B&W photos in the center. While the pages were yellowed with age, the cover and all pages were well intact with no actual physical damage.As a general note, I have ordered quite a few books from thrift shops, mostly historical and technical and have never been disappointed with any of them, all in better condition that some of my well worn reference books.

Written by Colonel Gabreski, this book mostly covers his actions over Europe during World War 2. A high scoring ace, and squadron commander with, the famed 56th Fighter Group ( the " Wolfpack" ),starts with his childhood in Oil City, Pennsylvania, and progresses through his college days and entrance into the Air Corps. Two big suprises to me were that he was not at all interested in aviation as a teenager,and , as he himself admits, was not a competent pilot trainee as he was learning to fly. Amazing , from a much admired pilot who became one of America's top aces. The last part of the book covers his adventuers after World War 2,especially during the Korean War, where he again shot down several North Korean MIGs. A well written book, I highly recommend it to students of U.S. military aviation. Thank you, and may The Lord bless and guide you.

This book is an excellent autobiography. It's well written and easy to read. I recommend it to anyone interested in WW-II history.

Because I was a very junior officer at Gabreski’s last command, the 52nd Fighter Wing, I bought this book to see what he had to say about his last 3 years. It was very much the twilight of his career. He wrote less than half a page of text about that time compared to the 70 plus pages devoted to a similar span of his WWII glory days. The base was reactivated a few months before Col. Gabreski took command and processed for closing a few months after he retired. The Col. was a dogfight fighter pilot a world away from that action in Viet Nam. We were training aircrew in the F101’s which never saw combat, were already obsolete, and would be retired at the same time the Col. was. And the weapons we loaded during our “No Notice Operational Inspections” were suited to defending against a WWII thousand plane bomber attack on New York City despite comedy movies were being made showing Russian submarines running aground in New England. “No Notice?” We always had lots of notice and still didn’t do all that well.The Col. is right that the facilities were in bad shape when he got there. Except for a rebuilt runway and new commissary building (that never opened) they were not much better when he left. One of the enlisted barracks had a 3 inch gap where the walls at one corner did not meet and snow came in to the room. A visiting general’s aide got stuck in one of regular rooms in the Bachelor Officer’s Quarters and the next morning they were declared “Unfit for human habitation.” People who had been stuck in the BOQ for 18 months dealing with a broken heating system and intermittent food service at the Officer’s Club were ordered to find off base housing within 24 hours.I arrived at the base about 6 months after the Col. arrived. I left the base about 6 months before he retired. As I was not an aircrew member only an aircraft electronics maintenance officer, I never actually met Col Gabreski. Fighter aircrew members were grouped in squadrons of about 40 officers and 6 enlisted personnel. My maintenance squadron was supposed to have 4 officers an about 230 enlisted. My people were not assigned to specific aircraft only specific systems. Two different worlds. A similar functional separation existed between married officers in base housing and single officers in the BOQ. In base housing, they had breakfast, lunch, and diner; house guests; and dinner parties 2 miles outside the base gates. In the BOQ, we had rooms like a college dorm with showers stuck on scalding and heating not above 40 degrees in February; no permitted cooking or guests; with an O Club bar open every day of the year even though the food service was frequently not open for dinner or breakfast. Also, it meant sleeping 100 yards from the nightly jet engine test stand. My last year was spent sharing a 3 bedroom house 10 miles from base with two civilian Grumman technicians who were away TDY on aircraft carriers. It just didn’t seem like the military.During my first year at the base, Col. Gabreski called two “Dinings In.” A Dining In is a British idea that is supposed to promote esprit de corps by having all the officers of the unit come to a formal dinner with a speech by a special guest. It actually forces each officer to put on a seldom used formal uniform, pay for a diner they didn’t want, carefully avoid talking to anyone outside of their normal group, and listen to a dull speech. At the first Dining In, the speaker was Alexander P DeSeversky one of the Col’s WWII contacts who at one time championed the idea of huge flying aircraft carriers that fighters could be launched from. Col. Gabreski made the second Dining In notable by calling out the name of one of his pilots and loudly announcing to everyone that the man’s wife was a whoring nymphomaniac. It was an appalling display of bad manners and conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman. The pilot stormed out of the building slamming and breaking the plate glass door. I still wonder if the pilot got an apology or a reprimand. It was our last Dining In.

From humble beginnings in a 1st generation immigrant family,Col. Gabreski tells his story.His faith in the Almighty,his loveof family and country formed the foundation of his life.A man with a dream and a vision,not of fame and fortune,but the prideand honor of serving his country as one of the courageous warriors of his generation.He believed America,and her ideals tobe the greatest country on earth.He gave it his all.Proud,but modest,with No shame or apologies...Thanks Col.We need more like him....

Grew up idolizing all the great US air aces, especially those in the 56th. The story of Gabreski is a must read. (The book I received was like new and a signed copy!)

It's a very good book about one of the best fighter pilots in WW II and Korea. It goes from the time he grew up in Pennsylvania through his military service, including his time with Polish pilots serving in the RAF. If you are interesting in WW II or air combat I recommend this book. .

I completely enjoyed this book. Granted, I am a huge WWII airwar history buff. But, this was a great read. I read it cover to cover in 2 days. The book takes you through Gabby's early life, his strict upbringing (a good thing) all the way through his retirement years. All in all this was an outstanding book. Great lessons in leadership can be found in this book.

Excellent read

I bought this book for my husband, at the moment he is really in to it...

Great for history project

A good book to read once but one that left me bored around halfway through. A lot of combats were included and much detail about the legendary Thunderbolt ace but on balance, I would not want to read this again, which is my test of a good book.The author has however done a good job but needed perhaps a bit less background and more of other personalities who flew with Gabreski.I much preferred Thunderbolt abour R S Johnson, or The Hub about Zembke who both became legendary fighter pilots in P57 Thunderbolt squadrons of the USAAF in WW2.Paul Davies BoBHSc