"Stealth Fighter" by Lt. Col William B. O'Connor

Digging through the aviation section of a book store specializing in used books and cut-outs (publisher dumping the inventory), I came across "Stealth Fighter". Of course I cringed since we all know the F-117 is a bomber and not a fighter. FWIW, here is my review of the book. If you want the "executive summary", yeah it is worth the $6 it cost me, plus of course time invested in reading it.

The book has two phases. One, O'Connor gets trained on the F-117, and two, he deploys to the Balkans.

First off, the author must keep a diary in addition to his flight log. A great deal of the book covers nonsense like the meal of the day. [Food is great in Italy...who knew!] Other extraneous stuff is details about the drinking games and lots of Democrat bashing, much of it incorrect. For instance, the author claims the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was due to funding cutbacks of the CIA by Clinton. However, the fact that the embassy had moved could be found on the internet at the time of the mistake, and further analysis showed that the CIA had the correct information. Basically for anything political in this book, pretend the source is the Faux News network.
Wiki on the embassy bombing

Regarding the authors training on the F-117, the book reads quite well. He goes into nuances in detail, including a few things I didn't know such as releasing the tail hook on a F-117 takes about $50k for MX. The book has diagrams of the cockpit controls, which leads me to assume there are some declassified documents out there as the source. He details how to land the plane in the event of landing gear issues. The flight operations phase of the book is good.

Next up is the deployment phase. The book covers aerial refueling in some detail. I knew the tanker has a TACAN, but apparently the F-117 has a TACAN as well, though just the DME portion. The aerial bomb targeting might be of interest to some people, but with the advent of JDAMS, much of what is discussed is less important these days. The deployment phase of the book is a bit of a bore unless you are into drinking games and related macho activity.

One thing to take away from the book is the need for timing. Because stealth aircraft are difficult to see on radar (both enemy and our own), the pilot sticks to a time table so that the planners know where the plane SHOULD be. Deconfliction only works if you stay on schedule.

Maybe I am wrong, but how does he know how the food in Italy tastes?
Didn't they fly there and back home without every landing in Europe? I remember some report about it, that mentioned the 20+ hours flight and that one of the guys even brought a camping bed on board so that he can get some easy sleep

a reply to: aLLeKs

Your thinking of the B-2 stealth bomber, not the F-117 stealth fighter (bomber).

originally posted by: gariac
For instance, the author claims the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was due to funding cutbacks of the CIA by Clinton. However, the fact that the embassy had moved could be found on the internet at the time of the mistake, and further analysis showed that the CIA had the correct information. Basically for anything political in this book, pretend the source is the Faux News network.

A few years after the incident, I was talking with somebody who was former AF and now a contractor in government intelligence. A few guys were at the pub (mostly academics and a couple of govt people) there was some joking about the ridiculous and uninformed conspiracy theories. I did say that I heard one which was a little less out there---that the Chinese embassy was bombed intentionally because US discovered that the Serbians were selling the F-117 debris to China and it may have been stored in the embassy. The US sent a couple of B-2's on this mission I believe which showed some seriousness. The guy smiled a little bit and said, "hmm, that's an interesting theory" and continued on with other subjects.

Note also that according to Wikipedia, the B-2 strike was not carried out under the NATO command structure which was running the war, somehthing rather curious, no?

Also it was described as "Belgrade Warehouse 1" in the US internal documentation, and

The folder originated within the CIA and described the target as a warehouse for a Yugoslav government agency suspected of arms proliferation activities.

So, a Yugoslav government agency which "proliferates arms", like transferring F-117 parts to China, and the "warehouse" for such parts...

A US official said,

"the Chinese Embassy and a headquarters for a Yugoslav arms agency ... look very similar: same size, shape and height

yeah, very very similar, hmm.

a reply to: mbkennel

In the book, the author said the facility was used by China for SIGINT. A believable story, but not significant enough to make it worthy of bombing. I mean every embassy does SIGINT and is a den of spies. And there is gambling in Las Vegas.

I would expect the Russians to be the more likely buyer of F-117 parts since China back then used Russian military aircraft.

Regarding bypassing NATO, from the book, there was a mole in NATO revealing plans, hence things were not always done by the book. The author blamed France for the leaks.

The back of the book has a list of all F-117 articles and where they are located. I'm sure it is on the interwebs as well, though my recollection of an email with Shadowhawk is that some locations on the F117 website aren't accurate.

There are some really obvious mistakes in the book. For instance the author indicates on page 2 he is flying tail 840-828, when it is obvious to any spotter it would be 84-0828. The list in the back of the book is correct in this regard.

In reference to the Chinese Embassy..... One JDAM is a mistake, Two is a coincidence, Three...."Do you get the message?" Four and Five are icing on the cake. It is not the first time an embassy has "accidentally" targeted during a raid. The Spanish and French Embassies in Tripoli both suffered damage in our raid April 1986.

originally posted by: cardinalfan0596
In reference to the Chinese Embassy..... One JDAM is a mistake, Two is a coincidence, Three...."Do you get the message?" Four and Five are icing on the cake. It is not the first time an embassy has "accidentally" targeted during a raid. The Spanish and French Embassies in Tripoli both suffered damage in our raid April 1986.

eh how many weapon/missile hit the chinese embassy ?

a reply to: buntalanlucu

Here, I'll help, courtesy of a search engine and the terms " Chinese embassy bombing Belgrade"

In answer to your question, it was five

originally posted by: aorAki
a reply to: buntalanlucu

Here, I'll help, courtesy of a search engine and the terms " Chinese embassy bombing Belgrade"

In answer to your question, it was five

thanks for the link