One Man Air Force Paperback – August 7, 2017

A fast and furious tale of great skill, determination and courage. Well written and interesting on every page. The pace of the action is as fast as the little time it takes to turn the very few pages. It leaves you breathless but wanting a lot more - just hated for it to end. A thoroughly engaging account of a man who was completely honest and refreshingly humble about his amazing flying skills and successes, as well as some of the brutal realities of air combat. Enjoyed every minute and was left wanting more of the same. Like the dogfights he describes, it totally focuses your attention, but was over almost before you realized it. A really good read, and perfect if you've got only a small amount of time.

As I'm reviewing this book, it has about 3.5 out of 5 stars, and i think that's too bad. In my opinion, this book was scripted by a partially literate soldier. The work is short and to the point. There are positive aspects of this. We essentially jump right into the cockpit. There are no stories about 'this is where i went to high school; this was my girlfriend; this is how much i missed her,' blaa blaa blaa. We get right to the point in this short book, and i appreciate that, partially because i read alot of books, and it speeds me up. I don't care about where he went to high school, etc. He takes credit for defeating the Luftwaffe, and seems to be completely ignorant of the Soviets overrrunning all of the Reich's major oil refineries and sources by the time he was having his success. But it seems genuine. This is his story. Any negative will be appreciated by Mustang fans. There's no, 'I pushed the throttle and the Packard pushed me back into the seat.' There's no descriptive account of P-51 characteristics. It's all about him.I have an Independently published (August 7, 2017), and it is selling now for $4. That's alright.

Compared to the contemporary books of pilots like Robert S. Johnson, Adolf Galland, Johnnie Johnson, Hans Ulrich Rudel, Gregory Boyington and Robert L. Scott - this is a very brief book that really doesn't give you much but a quick few glimpses into what "Gentle" obviously considered the most important things he learned as a fighter pilot. It certainly doesn't compare to any of the works by the pilots that I have listed. It definitely avoids his grounding for stunting over an airfield in England and crashing.

This is an inspiring story of an American boy that turned his love of airplanes & flying into a great contribution toward winning the Air War Over Germany. Told with humility and honesty, that shares his understandings & experiences gained with future generations that have or may yet face similar challenges.It is also interesting & exciting reading, that kept me turning pages.In addition it provides a great contrast of America United for a common cause & the America today divided by an Insidious Attack by those that lack the understanding of American Greatness & Why God has Blessed America More Than All Other Nations.

Good book and a great story but it ended very abruptly. But perhaps like his life…maybe that was the point?

I enjoy first person accounts of history - this book has a lot of potential. Don Gentile was a great fighter pilot. He also served in the RAF Eagle squadrons and flew missions in the Spitfire, Thunderbolt, and Mustang.There is a great underlying story, and the voice is very authentic, but the book is not well written and is extremely short, almost the length of an extended short story.

Title says it all.Hi author Did a great job of Describing Ariel combat This was the best Descriptions of such combat that I have read anywhere.But quite suddenly The book ended With no Effort At putting The earlier parts In summary or making it Less Than appointment description.

Fantastic Read From a Great Fighter Pilot in the Midst of Battle. I have a photo copy of this book that I got from the National Archives about 30 years ago. I believe it hasn't been in print since WWII. Don Gentile was interviews by Ira Wolfert, actually was his roommate during the hectic days of April 1944. So Don didn't actually write this, but told it to Ira. What truly makes it a treasure is that it is straight a young mans mouth while he is living the battles over Germany in WWII with the 336 FS of the 4th FG. A real current event, not polished and primped by an editor or publishing house and certainly not written years after the events like most similar books. To learn more about Don Gentile I highly recommend: Don S. Gentile - Soldier of God and Country by Mark M. Spagnuolo, D.D.S.; 1000 Destroyed by Grover C. Hall, Jr (about the 4th FG); Escort to Berlin by Gary L. Fry and Jeffrey Ethell (about the 4th FG); and The Look of Eagles by John T. Godfrey (Don's wingman with the 4th FG - this book is about John, but he and Don were a lethal combo and several of their dogfights have been used in teaching fighter pilots over the years - you get to learn more about Don from his wingman's perspective). One man Air Force is what General Eisenhower called Don when he presented him with the Distinguished Service Cross. That provided a lot of publicity during the war for Don which is why Ira picked that for the title of the book. However, Don was very much a team fighter and Winston Churchill called Don and his wingman John Godfrey the "Damon and Pythias" from Greek mythology (two very good friends) - a very fitting tribute to these two outstanding American young men who represented America so well during WWII. I highly, highly recommend this short book to everyone as well as the others I've mentioned above.

This ultra-slim publication is the real deal as it was written by the man himself. I wonder if Gentile (which I believe is pronounced 'Jentilly') would have survived the war if he hadn't been immediately sent home after incurring Bakeslee's displeasure by pranging his P-51B Mustang 'Shangri-la' in an airfield beat-up in April 1944? In any event, a tragedy that he was killed in a flying accident just a few short years after the end of WW2. One rather bizarre aspect of this very welcome re-printing (by Amazon) is the cover picture, which features RAF bombers. Surely a non-copyrighted image of Gentile, or at least Mustangs and/or Fortresses could have been found?

Well its not quite what I thought... this is surely the worlds shortest fighter pilot memoir, but nonetheless is another brick in the wall helping us to get inside the heads of the young men who went off to war for the sake of the free world.