Accounts of the US Air Force and US Navy air engaments.
A good book on the subject, though it can be a bit "dry" to a reader with little knowledge about air warfare.

I was not sure how good of a read this book would be, and figured it would be something I'd shove under the coffee table after a bit and only look at it from time to time. I was wrong. I haven't been able to put it down. There's no better way to hear these stories than to get them directly from the pilots, and that's exactly the idea the author had.

Thanks for a great read, Quizmo.

In this invaluable 2007 volume, ex-USAF fighter pilot Craig Brown presents blow-by-blow accounts of all 56 successful air combats fought by U.S. air units between 1981 and 1999. In terms of accuracy and excitement, Brown's book can't be beat since, in almost all cases, the accounts were supplied by the aircrew involved in the engagement. Air combat enthusiasts will want to add this exciting, well-illustrated book from Schiffer Publishing to their collection post-haste.

The engagements covered in DEBRIEF are a real smorgasbord of aircraft types and geographic locations. Not unexpectedly the Air Force and Navy's top-line fighters - the F-14, F-15 and F-16 - were the main players not to mention the occasional odd-duck like the A-10! Likewise their opponents were a mixed bag of MiGs, Mirages, Sukhois, helos, transports, trainers, etc. With few exceptions the kills were made with AAMs, mainly AIM-7 Sparrows, which may surprise some readers considering the Sparrow's dismal record over North Vietnam.

Though I gave DEBRIEF five stars, to be honest I felt 4 1/2 stars a more appropriate rating. Don't get me wrong: DEBRIEF is a great read and stands as THE definitive account of post-Vietnam War engagements. The air combat junkie in me loves this book. The first-person accounts, though heavy with fighter pilot techno-babble, put you right in the cockpit for some very exciting missions. Then too the narratives are illustrated with hundreds of photographs, mostly in color, of aircrew, aircraft, in-flight formations, ships, squadron patches, etc. and ten artworks depicting specific engagements.

The amateur historian in me, though, wishes Brown had done more with his material. Having compiled all this raw data, he could have made the book much more useful by doing some basic analysis of all those engagements. Specifically, what do all those combats MEAN in terms of modern air combat?

Reading through DEBRIEF, several points easily come to mind: what a killer machine the F-15 is, what a dominant role U.S. AWACS platforms play in modern air combat, the outstanding performance of the AIM-7, etc. So why did the F-15 perform so well? How have AWACs aircraft reshaped air combat? How come the Sparrow performed as well as it did and so on?

Then too I wondered if there were unsuccessful engagements during that timeframe and, if so, why did they fail? When I was doing the research for my MIG KILLERS OF YANKEE STATION I felt it was equally as important to discuss the failures as well as the successes to get the complete story. I would have enjoyed reading Brown's take on fighter combat in the 1980-90 timeframe.

In any case, if you like reading about air combat, pick up a copy of DEBRIEF asap. You won't regret it!

This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone interested in modern military aviation - it covers every successful Air to Air engagement by the US military since the Vietnam war through the present day. Full of first hand accounts and personal photographs of the aircrew and aircraft involved, this is the most comprehensive book on this topic to date. The only thing that would have made this book better would be the addition of the unsuccessful engagements during the same time period, like Michael O'connor's 'Mig Killers of Yankee Station' does. I also recommend - MIG Killers of Yankee Station, Aces Against Japan, Aces Against Germany

I found Debrief to be a excellent collection of First hand accounts of US Air to Air Combat Victories covering the period of 1981 to the Present. The text and photos are first rate. A must have book for anyone interested in Military Aviation history. I am a proud and very satisfied owner of the Debrief book.

Craig "Quizmo" Brown is a former US Air Force fighter pilot who has used his considerable connections and expertise to compile this complete list of US air-to-air victories dating back to 1981.

The beauty of this book does not lie with the reproduction or illustrations, although both of these are very pleasing, but with the authority of the text. The entire book has clout not because Brown has interpreted the engagements as he believes they occurred, but because he has tracked down and interviewed a great many of the pilots involved in the fifty-six different kills described within; what you read is almost always the recollection of the man in the cockpit at the time. There are only a few exceptions to this, and Brown is clear about the source and the timeline in which the information was obtained at the start of each narrative.

This is a great book for anyone interested in modern military air combat, and in particular the cutting edge technologies employed by the United States Air Force and Navy to achieve total air dominance in major conflicts since 1981, with Iraq and the Balkans being the two major theatres. There's no 'gung ho' attitude or blatant bias to the narratives - the candid nature of the fighter pilots interviewed means that many recall their kills warts 'n all. That means they highlight what went wrong as well as what went right, and for the reader it's a privilege to be treated without condescension.

The subtext to all of this is that there are acronyms in this book - there would simply be no way to write this book without incorporating them, and they are an integral part of modern air combat. They usually relate to some technical device or concept that are easy to understand. None are left unexplained, and they barely detract from the flow of the text since their use has been kept to a minimum. A full glossary is provided at the beginning to help establish what these all mean before you delve into the action.

In summary, Debrief is an excellent book containing what are effectively fifty-six short stories. That makes it ideal for those seeking a short read (or with short attention spans!), but does not alienate the more analytical and hard core of aviation enthusiasts and historians because there are a significant number of learning points to discover in each engagement narrative.

Debrief has certainly earned a prominent spot in my overcrowded book case, and I believe it is a `must have' reference work.