Check Six: A Fighter Pilot Looks Back

Flight Journal, Oct 2002 by DeGroat, Robert S

Check Six: A Fighter Pilot Looks Back

by Frederick C. Blesse. Champlin Fighter

Museum Press, 4636 Fighter Aces Dr., Mesa, AZ 85205; 178 pages; $26.

To those interested in fighter tactics, the phrase "check six" is both an admonition and a pulse quickener. As the author of "Check Six: A Fighter Pilot Looks Back," Maj. Gen. Frederick C. "Boots" Blesse is quite familiar with the term. First published in 1987, "Check Six" covers Blesses military career, from his graduation at West Point through tours in Korea and Vietnam to his eventual retirement as Deputy Inspector General of the Air Force.

With two Korean tours completed and 10 victories to his credit, Blesse found himself standardizing the tactics that made fighter pilots successful. Titled "No Guts, No Glory," his earlier book has been used as the basis of fighter operations (updated as necessary) ever since. In 1955, while flying an F-86F, Blesse won the USAF Worldwide Gunnery Meet, winning all six individual trophies offered-a feat unequaled to this day.

Despite the talk of air-combat maneuvering, Air Force planners of the mid'50s were looking ahead; they figured that guns were obsolete, and missiles could do the job better. From his experiences in Korea, Blesse knew that was intrinsically wrong, and he fought to get gun packs installed on his F-4s during Vietnam. Turns out he was right again, and every new fighter since then has had an internal gun.

Blesse talks tactics in a forthright manner that is understandable for the laymen among us. We are fortunate to have had men like him in the right place at the right time, and this excellent memoir shows why. I highly recommend it.