The Eye of the Viper

Every year, 1,000 fresh potential pilots undergo the intensive, six-month, 58-flight, USD2 million-a-head fighter pilot basic training where they are pushed to the extreme limits, propelled by the desire to earn their place in a warrior subculture. From the investigative, science and medical writer, Peter A. Aleshire, comes Eye Of The Viper, an intriguing book about the making of an F-16 fighter pilot. Blending intense human drama with a wealth of information about the world's most expensive, deadly, high-tech Air Force, the book follows a batch of fresh new recruits at Luke Air Force base, the world's largest fighter wing and the single most important source of fighter pilots that have made the American Air Force virtually unchallenged in the skies, as they experience the exhaustive six-month training process. Get an insider's look at how these rookies face mental and physical demands, exhilaration and failure, joy and pain, sweat and tears while they are transformed into stealth, fierce, American fighting machines. Each recruit is eager to climb into the jets they love at a moment's notice and fly half way round the world to drop laser-guided bombs down any smokestack the Preside