“It’s the teamwork out here that counts. The lone wolf stuff is out. Your life always depends on your wingman and his life on you. I may be credited for a MIG, but it’s the team that does it, not myself.” –Saber Jet Ace.

A Plumfield Kids Review by Jack Masarik, age 13

Joseph [Mac] C. McConnell always loved planes, whether they were the model planes he flew around his hometown or the real things. And when he decides to follow his patriotic duty and join the armed forces, he decides to become a pilot. Sadly, he is too young, and the Air Force turns him away. They refer him to the army until he is old enough. He follows their recommendation and becomes a medic in the army. 

When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, America was thrown head-first into war. But Mac wasn’t in the Second World War until early in 1945. That was the first time Mac saw combat. He was not a pilot as he wished to be a navigator on a bomber crew. 

During the last few months of WWII, in the Pacific theater, the Soviet Union invaded Japanese-held Manchuria. While the Russians did this they took large sections of China and Korea. Now, jump in a time machine and go five years in the future to 1950. A line called the 38th Parallel divides Korea almost directly in half. Communist Russia holds the northernmost half while the United Nations holds the southernmost half. The communist North Koreans backed by Russia, invade southern Korea. Thus a war is started between North Koreans and the U.N. This war would be called the Korean war, and it would last three long bloody years. 

When the Korean war breaks out Mac tries to become a pilot again, but unlike the last time, he makes it! His training takes him all the way until 1953; the last year of the war (well at least the last year of the war where there were shots being fired). 

The war in Korea was very different from WWII. One of the reasons is that technology has advanced hugely. Aircraft were made much faster, thanks to the invention of the jet engine. Saber Jets could go almost the speed of sound, whereas some prop planes could barely make enough speed at times to lift off the ground. Mac flew Sabre Jets during the Korean War. 

This book is so fast! I didn’t really realize that it wasn’t historical fiction till the end when it gave Joseph C. McConnell’s death date! It was one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.

Thank you Purple House Press for reprinting this excellent book! It was amazing! The illustrations in this book are very accurate, giving you an excellent idea of what happened.

Coombs wrote a lot of books (at least eighty-three!) If you like this book you might consider reading more of his. I have only read the two of his that Purple House Press has reprinted. This book: Sabre Jet Ace, and Alaska Bush Pilot.