English readers can read a review in English here...
Title: SAC in the 1980s
Autor: Adrian Symonds
ISBN 978-1-4456-9870-0
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Format: 96 pages, b/w and colour foto's and drawings
Price: approx. € 24,- paperback (GBP 14,39 in UK)
'Fighter pilots make movies, bomber pilots make history' - or so the bomber pilots say, anyway. Strategic Air Command held a constant nuclear-armed vigil, ready to launch nuclear war at a moment's notice, twenty-four hours a day. SAC was responsible for two of the three components of the Nuclear Triad - manned strategic bombers and land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) - alongside the Navy's SLBMs. Also responsible for the USAF's strategic reconnaissance aircraft, SAC maintained a large fleet of tankers to support its bombers and spy planes. After a drawdown of strength in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, SAC rebuilt its strength throughout the 1980s as part of a wider revitalization of the US armed forces under President Reagan. New advanced bombers, tankers and ICBMs joined the fleet with the promise of new stealth aircraft under development.
The seventies and eighties were my most active years with regard to the hobby, the cold war, service time and a lot of traveling and spotting. I still remember the impressive B1 that I saw in America still in development in a large hangar. At Mildenhall the take-offs of U-2 aircraft and the tankers. At Farnborough/Mildenhall the SR-71 to mention just a few.
Just to find out I searched for Strategic Air Command in my personal library and found about 5 books more or less on this subject. A Google search also yields results, so this certainly is not he only book on the Strategic Air Command. The advantage, however, for the author is that many sources have become freely available during the years and not marked “secret”. 96 pages is certainly not enough to go cover the SAC in all depth, but in 3
chapters:
- The History and Role of SAC
- SAC Structure
- End of an Era
So the author deals with the story of the Strategic Air Command in a way that it becomes clear to every reader how this command came about, functioned, with all the units involved, in the cold war and was decommissioned . Two annexes take care, in detail, with the structure in 1980 and 1989. The book has a lot of color photographs from the period of the Cold War, mainly from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which makes a number of them, somewhat more well known. The focus of the book is on the text in combination with explanatory photographs.
Conclusion
With SAC in the 1980s you will possess a great book with information on the Strategic Air Command without having to consult a large number of other books, where the author certainly also has an eye for interesting and important details. It touches on the period of the cold war with the nuclear threat and attack. Certainly because many older books on this subject are no longer (easily) available, this edition is actually a must for those interested in this subject and period.
At the time of writing, the book is not yet published, release date is July 15 2022. The book is available as eBook and paperback
Adrian Symonds has been fascinated by military history, especially military aviation, since childhood. No doubt, frequent low-level RAF and USAF jets flying over his native Worcestershire during his youth planted the seeds of his ongoing passion for the subject. He has extensively studied the histories of the world’s air forces.
Other books by this author are:
ANG in the 1980s
USAFE in the 1980s
TAC in the 1980s
Thanks to Amberley Publishing and Adrian Symonds for this review copy.
Reviewer: Fred Bachofner
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This article was published on this IPMS website Summer 2022 by M. de Vreeze