Book Review - Vipers In The Storm - Reviewed By Ryan "Kosmo" Cowley
“There is no one more devoted, more committed to the hard work of freedom, than every soldier and sailor, every marine, airman, and coast guardsman - every man and woman now serving in the Persian Gulf. Each of them has volunteered to provide for this nation's defense - and now they bravely struggle to earn for America, for the world, and for future generations, a just and lasting peace. Our commitment to them must be equal of their commitment to their country. They are truly America's finest."
-President George Bush
(1991 State of the Union Address)
By no means “hot off the press", Vipers in the Storm was published in 1999 by McGraw Hill. If not yet a part of your personal collection, I hope you take my strong recommendation to make it so. Beyond that, this book also makes a great gift. I have given away several copies over the holidays. You may purchase a copy at a discounted price from Amazon.com HERE, currently selling for $17.47. The paperback version of this book is available HERE.
I’ll add the standard disclaimer here that I have no relationship with the author or publisher and am not receiving any kickbacks. Note to Rosey: If you ever want to take me around the patch in anything with wings, my calendar is empty ;-)
If you’re like me and have a life that vaguely resembles normal, you have little time between work, family, and equally divided attention among deserving simulators to risk wasting time. So I’m here to tell ya….buy da book....read da book.
Overview
Vipers in the Storm is a telling account of an Air Force captain, callsign “Rosey", that chronicles the height of his career as an Air Force Officer, flying combat sorties in the Gulf War, piloting the sleek and lethal F-16 Fighting Falcon, otherwise affectionately referred to as the “Viper" by the lucky few who get the chance to fly her.
Unique to this book is the absence of gushing drama and meaningless drivel, instead replaced with a visceral re-telling of events in intimate detail. It’s the kind of reading that plants your nose in a book for hours on end. It puts you so close to the action, it may have you mistakenly telling “and there I was" stories to your pals.
The technical detail with which “Rosey" explores life at 500kts and 9G’s is riveting. The book, complete with cockpit diagrams, maps, and explanation of systems and weapon deployment, is enough to make you look over your shoulder and wonder to yourself if this is classified and you shouldn’t be reading it. Sitting atop the thin edge of a razor, “Rosey" is still somehow able to balance the appeal between the un-initiated general audience and the hardcore, Nomex wearing Falcon 4.0 buff.
The button pushing, dial loving, HOTAS squeezing, digital geekster like myself will immediately recognize the terms, situations, functionality, and systems that “Rosey" uses in describing his combat experience. Being able to do so is a true testament to the fidelity of Falcon 4.0, as most of us, like myself, have never gotten any closer to an F-16 than we have a bikini clad super model.
“Five miles from the target, I roll inverted and begin my attack. As soon as I roll upright again, I reach down and switch my VTR from left MFD to HUD. Passing through 20,000 feet, I switch from CCRP to CCIP and place my bombfall line directly over the diamond. As the pipper tracks upward, I ready my thumb above the pickle button. I pull my throttle back just a little bit to keep my airspeed in check. My dive angle is a little shallower than I would like, but there's nothing I can do about it now. I hit the pickle button, passing 17,100 feet, and the aircraft shudders slightly as the MK-84’s release. I pull back on my stick and begin to climb. As soon as the nose of my aircraft reaches the horizon, I roll into eighty degrees of bank and pull hard to the left. My RWR is still quiet, and there's no sign of any AAA."
It’s embarrassing to think I’m so enthralled with Falcon 4.0, but the likeness to these stories and that of the simulator are so great that I feel I could sit in a bar with “Rosey" all night long swapping war stories with every bit of detail and technical accuracy.
“I check my HUD. The target is only thirteen miles away. I call up my air-to-ground mode and descend to gain airspeed. With an eye on the ground and another on Harpo, I prepare for the roll-in. Missile contrails fill the sky. The flak is thicker than soup. At 8.3 DME, I get a Hawk symbol on the left side of my RWR scope, along with another launch indication."
In a world of cutting edge technology, large and loud war machines, life and death, “Rosey" does not take the humanity away from war at 20,000 feet. A particularly powerful experience stands out in my mind in which he bears down on an unsuspecting fuel truck. Speculating about the life of the man behind the steering wheel as he makes his approach. The man, a father who’s war beaten family struggles to sleep amidst air raid sirens and bomb explosions, has no choice but to fight or risk persecution and death, meets his end as the fiery result of 3 well placed Mk-82’s.
Danger is none-the-less abundant sitting in a climate-controlled canopy in front of a few green MFD screens. Having avoided and flown through precipitous AAA fire and SAM’s, the hard desert floor poses an equally perilous threat as “Rosey" discovered. In a brief moment of disorientation after weapons release, “Rosey" was horror-struck to find himself entering supersonic flight, 30 degree’s nose down at 1,600’. Who among us wouldn’t have stained an ACES II?
During “Rosey’s" six months in country, he was lethal at delivering AGM-65D’s, Mk-84’s, Mk-82’s, CBU-87’s and even made a hop with the potent M-129 leaflet delivery bomb. “Rosey" attacked targets ranging from the Iraqi nuclear research facility, to Republican Guard quarters, to tanks, APC’s, and other assorted vehicles.
As if the book weren’t enough, “Rosey" has taken it to the Ether and created a web presence at www.vipersinthestorm.com where he shares personal photos of his experiences, chapter summaries, photos of the weapons and aircraft used in Desert Storm, an interactive F-16 cockpit, a forum to which he personally responds to readers, and in a stroke of genius, “Rosey" included HUD footage of the various missions as described in the book. Read it, watch it, savor it.
The Author
Born June 7th, 1959 in Los Angeles California, Keith Rosenkranz, a child when he first decided to become a pilot, attended St. Bernard High School in 1973 in Playa Del Rey, California. In the evenings he worked as a box boy at a local Safeway supermarket. Upon graduation in 1977, Keith moved into an apartment and enrolled at Long Beach State University, still supporting himself working at Safeway and occasionally doing some construction work.
In the summer of 1980, Keith took the first step toward launching his career by earning his private pilot’s license at Santa Monica Airport in a Cessna 152. Keith’s ultimate goal was to someday become a commercial airline pilot. The best way to do so, he decided, was to join the Air Force. Still attending school, Keith met with an Air Force recruiter and determined the best way to meet his goal would be to enroll in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corp (AFROTC) program. The competition Keith faced was fierce. Fifteen candidates fought for only six pilot training slots.
Keith was ultimately rewarded a training slot. He committed to the Air Force and while receiving $100 a month from the Air Force, completed the rest of his college education. In June of 1982 at the age of 21, Keith married his sweetheart Colette and they honeymooned together in Hawaii.
In January of 1983, Keith took the Air Force oath of office and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. At Reese AFB in Lubbock Texas, Keith began Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) in the T-37 and T-38, which would last a year. In April of 1984 Keith was awarded with his Air Force wings and after attending pilot instructor training at Randolph AFB in San Antonio, Texas – where Keith earned Top Graduate honors in his class – he returned to Reese AFB in Lubbock, Texas and flew as a T-38 instructor pilot in the 54th Flying Training Squadron.
Promoted to a first lieutenant in April of 1985 and captain two years later in 1987, Keith was up for reassignment. He filled out his “dream sheet" indicating what he wished his next assignment to be. A short time later, Keith learned he had received a spot to fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
In February 1988 Keith - and a now pregnant Colette - left for Holloman AFB to begin Lead-In Fighter Training (LIFT) with the 433rd TFTS “Satan’s Angels." In April, Keith was the recipient of the class Top Graduate award. In June, F-16 training began at Luke AFB in Phoenix, Arizona. During this time, Colette gave birth to two twin daughters, Candice and Kristen. Keith graduated in December of 1988 having received both Top Graduate and Top Gun awards.
Keith’s first assignment in the F-16 would take him away from his family for a one-year tour to Kunsan Air Base, a base I’m sure many of us are familiar with, in the Republic of Korea. He served with the 80th TFS Juvats.
Keith returned to the United States in February 1990, after a successful tour in Korea. Keith gained valuable time in the F-16 during this tour. He became proficient with the F-16 weapons and avionics systems and participated in various exercises in the Philippines, Singapore, and Japan.
In March 1990, Keith attended Squadron Officer School at Maxwell AFB in Alabama for eight weeks. In May, he returned to Luke AFB for six weeks of LANTIRN training. In the summer of 1990, upon completion of LANTIRN training, Keith moved his family to Hill AFB, Utah, home of the 388th TFW, and his new squadron the 4th TFS Fightin Fuujins. The 388th TFW was the first operational wing to fly LANTIRN-equipped F-16’s.
Having had time to reacquaint himself with Colette and the girls, Keith deployed with the squadron to Nellis AFB for a Green Flag exercise. Shortly thereafter, chaos broke out in the Middle East as Saddam Hussein positioned his forces to capture Kuwait. Two days prior to returning to Hill AFB from Green Flag, Keith was made aware of the armed forces deployment to Saudi Arabia.
Deployment
Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2nd 1990. Six days later, Iraq announced Kuwait as it’s “nineteenth province." Shortly thereafter, President Bush addressed the nation marking the beginning of Operation Desert Shield.
Saddam Hussein boasted an army more than one million strong - well armed with the latest in Soviet technology. At the time, the Iraqi army was the 4th largest in the world with more than 5,500 tanks and approximately 635 combat aircraft.
August 21st, 1990, then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney announced that sufficient forces were in place to defend Saudi Arabia. These forces included F-15C’s from Langley, F-16C’s from Shaw, F-15E’s from Seymour Johnson, F-4G’s from George AFB, F-117’s from Tonopah, A-10’s from Myrtle Beach, E-3A’s, RC-135’s, KC-135’s, KC-10’s and the Army’s 11th Air Defense Brigade equipped with the latest surface to air missiles; the Patriot, and Stinger.
On August 24th, 1990, Iraqi troops surrounded the western embassies in Kuwait City, cutting off power and water. That same afternoon, as a member of the 4th TFS, the Fightin Fuujins, Keith received orders to prepare to deploy in the next 72 hours. The 421st Black Widows would follow two days later.
Keith prepared for deployment and a flight across the globe of epic proportions. They would first fly to Shaw AFB where they would spend the night. The following afternoon, the unit took off for Al Minhad AB in the United Arab Emirates, which is located approximately 500 miles east of the southern tip of Kuwait.
Keith was among 24 F-16s that took part in the furthest deployment and F-16 unit has made to date. The non-stop 15-hour flight covered 7,163 nautical miles and burned approximately 68,000 pounds of fuel. The trip required ten air-to-air refuelings.
Keith landed at Al Minhad AB in the UAE on August 29th 1990. Over the next 6 months, while enduring 100º temperatures and 90% humidity, Keith would fly dozens of training missions during and ultimately fly 30 combat missions – 27 of which were flown in the middle of the night in his LANTIRN equipped F-16.
Here is the heart of this book as he recounts his heroing missions in the dark of the desert, avoiding SAM’s and encountering thick AAA. A HUD film from his websites even shows a tracer streaking past his canopy narrowly avoiding cranial subjugation. In the next six months, Keith would crater the desert landscape dropping and launching a variety of munitions. He scored 10 Maverick missile kills alone on the infamous “Highway of Death".
For serving his country during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Keith was awarded four Air Medals; two Aerial Achievement Medals; an Air Force Commendation Medal; the National Defense Medal; the Southwest Asia Service Medal with two bronze service stars; the Kuwait Liberation Medal awarded by Kuwait; the Kuwait Liberation Medal awarded by Saudi Arabia; and his unit was awarded the Outstanding Unit award with Valor. That’s a lot of brass!
Keith flew in the F-16 Fighting Falcon for his last time on February 28th 1991. Shortly after returning home from Al Minhad, he decided to leave the Air Force having accomplished everything he had wanted to as a fighter pilot. Now a pilot for Delta Airlines, flying the friendly skies in a Boeing 727, Keith lives with his family in Texas.
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Reviewer’s System Specs
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Mk-20 eyeball’s corrected to 20/40
Blue La-Z-boy with 2 position extendable footrest
60watt soft white light bulb with diffusing shade
Coors Light chilled to 42.5ºF
Fluffy puppy dog bookmark
