Flyboys?

I do believe that Bradley really overworked the term in "Flyboys".
His continuous use of the term throughout the book reminded me of some of
these rock groups

As I get farther along, I find he's doing it with other terms. In
chapter three he explains that the cruder gang who took over the
Japanese military after the Russo-Japanese War concluded from that war
that everything depended on the spirit of the soldier. He segues from
that to calling them the Spirit Boys.

I guess it's just an irritating tic that I'll have to accept. The man
has discovered a few concepts and wants to make sure that we remember
them. Apart from that, I thought his ten-or--twelve page history of
Japan was a damn good summary of a world that westerners find it
almost impossible to understand. (We are still arguing about the
emperor's role in starting the war, never mind ending it.)

Thanks, everybody!


all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

I do believe that Bradley really overworked the term in "Flyboys".
His continuous use of the term throughout the book reminded me of some of
these rock groups

As I get farther along, I find he's doing it with other terms. In
chapter three he explains that the cruder gang who took over the
Japanese military after the Russo-Japanese War concluded from that war
that everything depended on the spirit of the soldier. He segues from
that to calling them the Spirit Boys.

I guess it's just an irritating tic that I'll have to accept. The man
has discovered a few concepts and wants to make sure that we remember
them. Apart from that, I thought his ten-or--twelve page history of
Japan was a damn good summary of a world that westerners find it
almost impossible to understand. (We are still arguing about the
emperor's role in starting the war, never mind ending it.)

Thanks, everybody!


all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

I noticed on the flyleaf that Bradley had accompanied George Bush Sr. on his
trip to the island. Bush's trip I understand, was arranged by one of the
cable channels; History I think, for the purpose of "filling in the blanks"
on Bush's war experiences near the island, and of course in the process,
generating some viewer interest in the History channel for it's sponsors :-)
Bradley's presence on this trip would indicate to me anyway, an association
of his book with the Bush legacy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but
noteworthy just the same if one is viewing Bradley's book from a pure
historical standpoint.
What's interesting to me is that the story itself has some historical legs,
and could have been presented much better than the amateurish way it was.
The Japanese background workup into the story was fairly well done, but I'm
with the rest of you on the grossly overworked and sophomoric, not to
mention totally boring continuous use of catch phrases throughout the book.
Sad really!
The story had interesting characters, location, and historical timing. It
could have been a descent work with a better approach to presentation.
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
For personal email, please replace
the z's with e's.
dhenriquesATzarthlinkDOTnzt

I took the liberty of moving the thread

As I get deeper into Flyboys, my irritation increases. Bradley
regularly refers to the North American B-25 Mitchell bomber as a
Billy. "Flyboy" as a word for pilot or air crew is bad enough, but
Billy! Where did he pick that up?

I'm also despairing that his 10-to-12 page histories are continuing.
I'm about halfway through the book and we still haven't come back to
Chichi Jima. He's trying to cover the entire 19th-20th century misteps
of Japan *and* the United States in this fairly slender volume, and he
just doesn't know what he's talking about half the time. It all
depends on which source volume he picked up (take a look at his
citations: there'll be one book cited, then ibid, ibid, ibid).

He doesn't know the difference between casualties and deaths. Airplane
engines stall in mid-air. And of course there's the famous jet fuel on
carrier decks.

But what really set me off was his account of the Doolittle raid,
which ends with the statement: "The U.S. and Japan were even" -- they
mounted a sneak attack on us; we mounted a sneak attack on them.
Bradley is able to overlook the rather important difference that in
April 1942 Japan and the United States were at war!



On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 05:12:53 -0500, Cub Driver
wrote:


I do believe that Bradley really overworked the term in "Flyboys".
His continuous use of the term throughout the book reminded me of some of
these rock groups

As I get farther along, I find he's doing it with other terms. In
chapter three he explains that the cruder gang who took over the
Japanese military after the Russo-Japanese War concluded from that war
that everything depended on the spirit of the soldier. He segues from
that to calling them the Spirit Boys.

I guess it's just an irritating tic that I'll have to accept. The man
has discovered a few concepts and wants to make sure that we remember
them. Apart from that, I thought his ten-or--twelve page history of
Japan was a damn good summary of a world that westerners find it
almost impossible to understand. (We are still arguing about the
emperor's role in starting the war, never mind ending it.)

Thanks, everybody!


all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

Cub Driver wrote:

I guess it's just an irritating tic that I'll have to accept. The man
has discovered a few concepts and wants to make sure that we remember
them. Apart from that, I thought his ten-or--twelve page history of
Japan was a damn good summary of a world that westerners find it
almost impossible to understand. (We are still arguing about the
emperor's role in starting the war, never mind ending it.)


.... *ALSO* whether or not he was properly dressed when he did so
eh?...
--

-Gord.

I'm thinkin the term is used just like when SGT Mickland on
"Blacksheep Squadron" used to call Pappy Boyington "College Boy" (of
course it was only TV, but we used to use it occasionally on the "Fly
Boys" in our squadron too).
On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 05:53:04 -0500, Cub Driver
wrote:


I just picked up a copy of Flyboys at BJ's Wholesale Club. Read the
first two chapters last night.

I was amazed that the author uses the term Flyboys throughout the
book, or at least throughout the first chapter. I'd assumed it was
just a cute title, but no: "Flyboys were over Chici Jima" etc.

When I was growing up--which was about the time of these
events--"flyboy" was a derisive name. It's what a ground-pounder would
say when he complained about the soft life pilots (indeed air crews)
had, compared to the infantry in the mud.

Anyone else ever heard it this way? Any mllitary pilots here ever
refer to themselves as flyboys or Flyboys?

Thanks!

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

In article , Cub Driver wrote:

I was amazed that the author uses the term Flyboys throughout the
book, or at least throughout the first chapter. I'd assumed it was
just a cute title, but no: "Flyboys were over Chici Jima" etc.

That was only one of the things I found irritating and cute about the
book. Overall it struck me as overblown and posturing. Others
may have a different opinion. There were some passages where
I though "this guy should have had someone that knows something
about WWII military aviation read this," though I'm not going to
reread it to give citations. The good part was it was dirt cheap.
The "amazing revelations" weren't. I thought it was a trifle disingenuous
(if that's how you spell it...) to hype it as having something to do with
the first President Bush. It had almost as much to do with the Wright
Brothers.

However, it's a rare aviation book that isn't worth reading at all,
and this one was no exception. My advice is to get it from the
library and use the savings to buy a couple used copies of _Fate
Is The Hunter_ to give to friends for Christmas!

Happy anniverary of flight to everyone out there. Looks like the
weather in Minnesota won't encourage me to get up today.
Damn it.

Mike Beede