Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

by Robert Coram

Aerial combat is a blood sport, a knife in the dark. Winners live and losers die. Boyd instinctively knew this and his flying was, from the beginning, that of the true fighter pilot.

There are two kinds of mistakes a student pilot could make when delivering bombs or rockets: “pussy errors” and “tiger errors.” Pussy errors are the result of coming in high, shallow, and slow: the pilot is tentative. Tiger errors are the result of coming in low, steep, and fast: the pilot is overly aggressive.

proceeded to knock back a few beers. Then everyone decided to drive into Vegas for a night of barhopping and dancer-watching. Catton lit a cigarette and jumped into his red Corvette and tore through the main gate. The sentry did not salute, probably because the Corvette was only a blur when it passed by. Catton locked the brakes, skidded to a stop, then reversed at high speed, gravel flying. He chewed out the sentry and was off again, the Corvette’s rear end skidding as he turned left onto Las Vegas Boulevard and accelerated.

But to become an instructor, a man who taught other pilots how to deliver nuclear weapons, he had to be the very personification of good judgment.

Southerners and fighter pilots know the story is more important than the facts. If a story is not true it can become true in the telling.