Modelers & aviation buffs should be familiar with Steve Ginter’s line of books, covering some of the great as well as the obscure aircraft of the U.S. military services.

This is the fourth & final book in the F-8 series. This one covers 59 separate squadrons and 7 Naval Air Test directorates that operated the F-8 in various forms & duties. This is the largest book in the series, with 217 pages. The other three cover Marine Corps units, RF-8 units, & the technical details of the fighter version.

It has several tables, including an F-8 production list, F-8 deployments to Viet Nam, complete with the dates, air wing assignment, version flown, modex’es & tail codes. Another table has the information of all the MiG kills by F-8s during the conflict, including the pilots name, squadron assignment, date of kill, aircraft flown, weapon used, carrier assigned to, & the type of MiG shot down.

Photographs are plentiful, although the only color shots are in the inside front & back covers, and on the back cover. Only 6 pages do not have any photos on them, and some pages have nothing but photos. Thankfully, most of the captions describe the colors used in the squadron markings. An illustration of one of the squadron patches is included for each of the units.

The amount of text devoted to each unit varies considerably. Naturally, the more history a unit has behind it, the more pages, text, & photos it will have. For example, VF-202, a reserve squadron that flew the for six yeas gets on pare & 2 photos. However, VF-211, the highest scoring F-8 MiG killers of the war gets 10 pages, & 31 photos, including one of the few color shots.

Well known fighter squadrons are covered, including VF-32 Swordsmen, the first fleet F-8 unit, VF-24, the second highest scoring F-8 MiG killers, VF-84, then known as the Vagabonds, & my all-time favorite Navy fighter unit, VF-111 Sundowners, plus many others people will recognize.

Not so well known units, like VF-162 Hunters, & VF-53 Iron Angels, who scored 3 Mig kills between them, are also covered.

There is a 15 page section with a lot of text, written by a former F-8 driver with VF-154, when the F-8 was still new to the service. This pilot had the experience of making 2 barricade arrested landings in the Crusader, & makes for a good read.

From what I understand, this book is out of print, so you F-8 and/or naval aviation fans be sure to grab this one up if you ever run across it. It is well worth it, & I highly recommend it.

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