Bogeys and Bandits
The Making of a Fighter Pilot
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Narrated by:
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Thomas Block
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By:
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Robert Gandt
About this listen
Americans are fascinated by the undeniable mystique of the elite world of Navy fighter pilots. In Bogeys and Bandits, Robert Gandt takes listeners on a thrilling ride in the FA-18 Hornet, one of the fastest, sleekest, and deadliest aircraft in the world.
Gandt lived and worked with several pilots learning to fly the Hornet: the identical twins from Middle America; the computer nerd with a penchant for speed; the grandson of a Tuskegee Airman, trying to live up to a proud legacy; and two women dealing with the post-Tailhook world of the Navy.
Gandt weaves superb technological details of the Hornet and an insider's look at the highly demanding training program with portraits of the day-to-day lives of these very real people aspiring to fulfill a dream. Bogeys and Bandits will hold listeners breathless as they soar through the skies in the cockpit of the fastest and deadliest fighter plane in the world.
©1997 Robert Gandt (P)2017 Robert GandtListeners also enjoyed...
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Performance
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In the summer of 1967, Mark Garrison had dropped out of college at Southern Illinois University just before entering his third year. He had run out of money and had to work for a while. These were the days before the lottery and the draft soon came calling. In order to somewhat control his own future, he enlisted in the US Army's helicopter flight school program. Little did he know that this adventure would be the most profound experience of his life.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 04-25-16
By: Mark Garrison
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Damn Lucky
- One Man's Courage During the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History
- By: Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, John Luckadoo
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was a world away from John Luckadoo’s hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. But when the Japanese attacked the American naval base on December 7, 1941, he didn’t hesitate to join the military. Trained as a pilot with the United States Air Force, Second Lieutenant Luckadoo was assigned to the 100th Bomb Group stationed in Thorpe Abbotts, England. Between June and October 1943, he flew B-17 Flying Fortresses over France and Germany on bombing runs devised to destroy the Nazi war machine.
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must read
- By td godfrey on 10-06-22
By: Kevin Maurer
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The Last Man On the Moon
- By: Eugene Cernan
- Narrated by: Eugene Cernan
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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This is the story of a unique American hero who came of age as an astronaut during the few dramatic years when man reached the moon. Cernan's career spanned the entire Apollo program, from the tragic fire that killed three of his comrades on Apollo 1, through the moment when he left man's last footprint on the moon as commander of Apollo 17.
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Yet Another Perspective
- By Shellbin on 12-28-12
By: Eugene Cernan
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The Vietnam Air War
- From the Cockpit
- By: Colonel Dennis M. "Mike" Ridnouer
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The Vietnam War is one of the most misunderstood military conflicts in 20th-century America. Showcasing 72 true stories told by American servicemen who fought from the skies, this unique and historically significant collection is a stunning record of the air war in Southeast Asia during the 1960s and 1970s.
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Overall worthy and perspective broadening
- By Clayton Cartier on 11-03-20
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Hogs in the Sand
- A Gulf War A-10 Pilot's Combat Journal
- By: Buck Wyndham
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The mighty, iconic A-10 Warthog was first thrust into battle in Operation Desert Storm. The men who took it through walls of flak and surface-to-air missiles to help defeat the world's fourth-largest army were as untested as their airplanes, so they relied on personal determination and the amazing A-10 to accomplish their missions, despite the odds.
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Weak
- By KL on 12-29-22
By: Buck Wyndham
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Flying from the Black Hole
- The B-52 Navigator-Bombardiers of Vietnam
- By: Robert O. Harder
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Air Force navigators and bombardiers have long labored under the shadow of pilots - their contributions undervalued, misunderstood, or unknown to the general public. This was especially the case with the non-pilot officer aircrew in the Vietnam and Cold War-era B-52 Stratofortress. Of the six people who operated the bomber, three wore navigator wings - two of those men were also bombardiers, the other an electronic warfare officer. Without the navigator-bombardiers in particular, executing the nuclear war strike plan or flying Southeast Asian bombing sorties would have been impossible.
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Today I learned something new.
- By Rob Wilson on 02-20-21
By: Robert O. Harder
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Before Topgun Days
- The Making of a Jet Fighter Instructor
- By: Dave Bio Baranek
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Before becoming an instructor in the Navy's Topgun program, Dave "Bio" Baranek was just another kid with a dream. Upon graduating from college, he joined the Navy with the goal of becoming a fighter pilot. But, his eyesight waning, he knew that he would never be able to reach that goal. Undaunted, he plowed ahead and found his niche as a radar intercept operator in the backseat of the sleek, new Grumman F-14 Tomcat.
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SHB
- By Kindle Customer on 06-10-23
By: Dave Bio Baranek
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Come Up and Get Me
- An Autobiography of Colonel Joe Kittinger
- By: Joe Kittinger, Craig Ryan
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A few years after his release from a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp, in 1973, Colonel Joseph Kittinger retired from the Air Force. Restless and unchallenged, he turned to ballooning, a lifelong passion as well as a constant diversion for his imagination during his imprisonment. His primary goal was a solitary circumnavigation of the globe, and in its pursuit he set several ballooning distance records, including the first solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1984. But the aeronautical feats that first made him an American hero had occurred a quarter of a century earlier....
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A rewarding read
- By Andrew Braddick on 03-25-13
By: Joe Kittinger, and others
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The Wrong Stuff
- The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator
- By: Truman Smith
- Narrated by: James Killavey
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Between April and July 1944, Truman Smith flew 35 bombing missions over France and Germany. He was only 20 years old. Although barely adults, Smith and his peers worried about cramming a lifetime's worth of experience into every free night, each knowing he probably would not survive the next bombing mission. Written with blunt honesty, wry humor, and insight, The Wrong Stuff is Smith's gripping memoir of that time.
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Why I got it...and glad I did.
- By Marie on 11-27-14
By: Truman Smith
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Bomber Pilot: A Memoir of World War II
- By: Philip Ardery
- Narrated by: James Killavey
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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"The sky was full of dying airplanes" as American Liberator bombers struggled to return to North Africa after their daring low-level raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti. They lost 446 airmen and 53 planes, but Philip Ardery's plane came home. This pilot was to take part in many more raids on Hitler's Europe, including air cover for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This vivid firsthand account records one man's experience of World War II air warfare.
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Fascinating...and true story
- By Loretta on 06-24-15
By: Philip Ardery
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Tail-End Charley
- Stories from an American Fighter Pilot in World War II
- By: James E. Brown
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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On his 19th birthday, James E. Brown tries to fake to his flight instructor that he has flown before. On his 21st birthday, Brown is on his way home after logging 85 missions in a P-47 fighter over Italy, France, and Germany. Brown's stories surrounding his training and combat experiences in World War II reveal brushes with death, continuous peril and, ultimately, a coming of age for a young man whose freshman year in college becomes instead a heroic engagement with one of the fiercest enemies his country has ever encountered.
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Good read !
- By kevin on 06-19-18
By: James E. Brown
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The Night Stalkers
- By: Michael J. Durant, Steven Hartov, Lt. Col - Ret Robert L. Johnson
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Here are thrilling, never-before-heard stories of the Army's elite aviation unit - the most daring and professional helicopter crews in the world. Special Operations pilots are notoriously reticent; they don't talk about their missions, at least not to anyone outside their small community. But now, with the publication of The Night Stalkers, Durant and Steven Hartov shed a fascinating light on these mysterious super commandos and take readers into a world they have only imagined.
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A book that does justice
- By Robert on 10-05-07
By: Michael J. Durant, and others
What listeners say about Bogeys and Bandits
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- AshliDF
- 08-03-17
Great book but the narrator...
The descriptions of each individual progressing through fighter training was great. The narration made listening difficult though.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 08-16-18
Great material overcomes less then stellarnarrator
Gandt is an excellent aviation writer. His works are always entertaining, and this one is no exception. It captures an interesting snapshot in time, immediately following the tail hook scandal era.
The material is so fascinating and well written that it overcomes a truly comical production and performance. Take a listen to the short audio clip to get a taste for the narrator's voice and delivery. You'll get a fair idea of what I'm talking about. But there is something else here that truly puzzles me, which are the little musical moments thrown into some of the exciting passages in the book. These appear to be pretty random, since you never quite see them coming... but sometimes during a tense passage, such as a crash or a moment of triumph, the narrator will pause and a musical selection will start. The music is as generic as humanly possible, as if the producer had one CD of public domain material to select from and they did the best they could. It is the most unnecessary thing I've ever come across in an audiobook. Truly comical actually, since the narrator sort of tries to go with it. It is funny to the point of distraction, but should not deter anyone from getting this very worthwhile title.
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- Ciaran
- 06-04-24
Impossible to listen to…
Great story, however, I was only able to listen to about three hours of it without going insane. The narrator is so bad, it almost sounds like several different AI reproductions that were pieced together at the last second.
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- Tim Schneider
- 01-10-23
Narration makes aviation story almost unbearable
I will never listen to another story performed by this narrator. Never ever. The sections with the music overlay were unbearable and I had to fast forward through them. I really enjoyed reading this book. I was looking forward to the audiobook, but I will never go down that path again.
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- Mark L. Berry
- 05-28-17
Fighter Pilot Insight
Where does Bogeys and Bandits rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This was a decent book, worth reading if the subject of military combat is your thing. The parts where characters actually developed and either flew or failed were great, but there was a lot of telling rather than revealing, so this book felt more informative than entertaining.
Would you be willing to try another book from Robert Gandt? Why or why not?
I would, but I'd read the reviews first.
Which scene was your favorite?
The night carrier landings were exciting, and the camaraderie, competition, and politics within the squadron were entertaining.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
No extreme reaction.
Any additional comments?
Kudos to the author's choice of narration. I have listened to many books told by Thomas Block.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Calvin Walker
- 07-09-18
Great story. Bad narrator.
The narrator is terrible. I couldn't finish it. The story would have been interesting. Sad.
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2 people found this helpful
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- perry saunders
- 01-02-21
Impossible to listen to
Worst narrator ever!
I am really interested in this topic but I was so disappointed the narrator entirely wrecked this audio book.
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- Checco
- 09-08-21
Dang
Horrible music funny, original performance . So and so story Informative but for aviation beginners . Check out
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- Buttface
- 11-04-24
why did they get a drunk Mr. Magoo to read this?
The book is fine, I grabbed it on audible to refresh on it and I can't get through it because the narrator sounds like he's 7 cocktails deep and needs a damn Claritin
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- Ken W.
- 09-17-18
good story, narrator not so much
As many have stated, the story was good and enjoyable, however the narrator was very difficult to listen to. many times the slurring made him sound drunk.
During several of the books climactic moments, they played some music to add drama, this was VERY over produced
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1 person found this helpful