United States Air Force 1947-2005

By Michael Benolkin

Review

Here is an interesting compilation of history and reference resources. As the sub-title says, this is a chronological history as well as a top-level bibliography to specific topics.

Chapter 1 starts with a chronological look at USAF history starting with July 26, 1947, the day when the USAF became a separate service branch from the Army. Chapter 1 lists key dates in the late 1940s that were milestones in USAF history. Chapter 2 covers the 1950, Chapter 3 the 1960s, Chapter 4 the 1970s, Chapter 5 the 1980s, Chapter 6 the 1990s, and finally Chapter 7 in the new century.

The chronological chapters make up a little over half the page count. Next comes the Bibliography which list articles for different weapons systems. The list is by no means comprehensive, but they do list New York Times and Aviation Week articles covering a given aircraft or weapon by issue and pages. The last two pages contain a list of common USAF acronyms.

This title will provide the reader with a good quick-reference of what was happening in the USAF at just about any point in its history, and through the dates of the representative bibliographical references, see what was happening with a given aircraft or weapons system during that time.

This title is available directly from the publisher at Dataview Publications (www.dataviewbooks.com).

My sincere thanks to Dataview Publications for this review sample!