What a great read! Plenty of authentic "There I was...felt like this...smelt like that" narratives that will keep the reader spellbound. The first chapter is the most concise, complete and readable history of the Wild Weasels I have ever seen. No boring technojargon. Just thrilling personal accounts of modern warfare, which is a concoction of Technology and old-fashioned guts.I flew with the Wild Weasels in Vietnam (I would say North Vietnam, but that's redundant since the Weasel mission is against SAMs and the only area SAMS were located in that war was the North). The technological advances since those early days are cosmic, and we old-timers can only wonder how many of our comrades would not have been lost in battle, or consigned to years as POWs, if we had had anything like this available to us back then. But the essence of Weaseling has not changed over the years. The pilot still has to fly around where the SAMs are and ferret them out by offering himself as the bait to get them to reveal themselves. And then kill the SAM site before the SAM kills him.And some reviewers wonder why that pilot might seem a little overconfident, maybe (horrors!) even arrogant and egotistical? YGBSM! This is not a task for wimps.Sure, Hampton is willing now and again to step into the age-old dispute between those few at the tip of the spear and those many back in support (the REMFs). This dichotomy, sometimes over-simplified as rated vs non-rated, is internal (but not unique) to the Air Force. The reviewer who thinks Hampton is disparaging infantry and marines is way off base. Even Snoopy in Peanuts has the good grace to respect and pity "the poor blighters in the trenches." No, Hampton's beef is legitimately with those Air Force weenies who have never flown in combat but consider themselves qualified to set priorities. They are the supercilious types who think it's crucial that creases be straight and boots be polished when the real problem is bad guys trying to kill us. And note that Hampton is very complimentary to the tanker crews who disregarded standing orders and instead flew out of the safe tracks into hostile territory to rescue fuel-critical fighters who had pressed the fight even after reaching Bingo. This happened frequently in Vietnam, too, and we greatly respected the courage of those who were willing to hang it out in their slow-movers.Hampton is a very talented writer as well as a sh*t-hot fighter pilot and an outstanding Wild Weasel. I was very pleased with his preference for DEAD over mere SEAD. And I applaud his questioning why the term ACE is restricted to fighter pilots who have shot down five enemy planes. The fighters who tackle SAMs have, in many ways, an even hairier mission, and there ought to be a similar heroic appellation for 5-SAM killers. Maybe SAM-Ace? I know, I know, problems with confirmation of kills. There will always be doubters. Let's just hope there will also always be self-assured fighters of Hampton's caliber whom America will occasionally need to keep us safe and free. In my opinion, they're entitled to swagger.