| What
distinguishes Richard F. Miller's A Carrier at War
is its focus on individual officers and sailors and shipboard
morale as distinct from the usual "bomb and bullet"
reporting. The USS Kitty Hawk's mission paralleled
the tortuous course of events leading up to the Iraq War.
Originally stationed in the northern Persian Gulf to enforce
the Southern No-Fly Zone, the Kitty Hawk became one
of the lead elements in the campaign to "shock and awe"
the Iraqi armed forces, from the moment her battle group launched
twelve of some forty Tomahawk cruise missiles in the first
effort to kill Saddam Hussein to the round-the-clock sorties
of fighter jets launched from her deck once hostilities began.
The author, who was present before, during, and after the
beginning of the war, interviewed the ship's captain, chaplains,
aviators, the ship psychologist, doctors, the dentist, and
the chief of security. He visited the brig, interviewed the
jailors, ate with both officers and enlisted men and women,
and, on the brink of war, attended both Christian and Jewish
religious services.
Perhaps of greatest
importance, owing to his cigar habit, he spent many hours
in the one place on board where the real face of life at sea
can be observed — the enlisted personnel's smoking sponson.
Here the crew relaxed and proved honest enough to enable the
author to make his most surprising discoveries about the modern
military.
"The author of A Carrier at War is an accomplished
storyteller with a keen eye for the telling detail and interesting
anecdote. He quickly befriended officer and enlisted people
alike and had a front row seat for the action as USS Kitty
Hawk played its part in the Iraq War. Those who have
served at sea will be reminded of feelings long forgotten;
those who have not will feel that they were there, as well.
The book will interest a wide lay audience and will also give
students of civil-military relations some extraordinary insights
into life in the Navy."
— Capt. John Allen Williams, USNR (Ret.); professor
of political science, Loyola University Chicago; chair and
president, Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society
"A Carrier
at War provides the unique perspective of a Civil War
historian on naval aviation’s role in Operation Iraqi
Freedom: twenty-first-century technology and the aviators
and sailors who make it work 24/7. The differences between
the two eras are obvious, but the similarities are well and
engagingly told. Miller’s book is likely to be discussed
for years to come."
— Barrett Tillman, aviation historian and author of
Clash of the Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas
Turkey Shoot of World War II
"Unlike most
embedded reporters covering the Iraq War, Richard F. Miller
went aboard Kitty Hawk armed with a background as
a military historian. The resulting book provides an engaging
and penetrating look into the soul of a fighting warship —
the men and women of her crew — and represents a voyage
of discovery for a student of the Civil War seeking to understand
the war-fighters of the modern age."
— M. Hill Goodspeed, historian, National Museum of Naval
Aviation
"Well-written
. . . As befits an historian who has focused on the common
soldier and his world, Miller's account is particularly strong
on people, from an admiral or two down to the youngest sailors
on their first sea tours."
— The NYAMAS Review
"The author
has drawn upon his attention to detail and his ability to
make others feel at ease with him and produced a captivating
personality study of those who live within the cramped and
limiting quarters of a 'bird farm'. The book will retrieve
some long-lost images for those who have experienced shipboard
life in years long past, and bring the true landlubbers a
bit closer to its reality."
— Armada International
"Vivid and
personal."
— California Bookwatch
Richard F. Miller is a retired investment banker, an historian
of the American Civil War, and a consultant to Talk Radio
News Service. He is a co-author of The Civil War: The
Nantucket Experience. He is a graduate of Harvard College
and Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Miller
is a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and lives
in Concord, Massachusetts.
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