The Aviators: The Brotherhood of War

The Aviators: The Brotherhood of War – W.E.B. Griffin

Book 8 of what I think was supposed to be a 6-book series.  At the end of Book 6 (‘The Generals’), the author included a “Where are they now?” addendum at the back of the book thinking it would be the last one.  You can’t go higher than a general. Right?  Maybe Griffin missed his characters too much or realized there was still some magic in those fictitious people, so he finds a way to keep the story going.

Wisely, the major characters have been delegated to minor roles and placed in the background for this story. This allows the author to bring in a new protagonist, the young John Oliver – a combat pilot with experience in (the early days of) Vietnam. Like most of Griffin’s war books, there’s not much combat within the book. Instead, the main part of the story is Oliver back home at a military base serving as aid for good ole (now) General Bob Bellman.  So what we instead see is a lot of behind the scenes drama of what goes on with all of the military politics, even though most of the action takes place at home behind the comforts of a military base.  This has been the pattern of all of the books in the series and, as boring as it might sound, the formula actually works.  You actually do end up caring about the characters even though you feel like your reading ‘Peyton Place’ instead of ‘Apocalypse Now’.

If there is actually anything that can be considered a military “story” that this book is based on, you can say there is one that revolves around the Chinook helicopter that has just been developed by the army to be used in combat. It’s designed to actually carry the infantry from one place to another in the heat of battle, which was something not seen before Vietnam. The problem is that Chinook is an “air” vehicle, and, well, “air” type vehicles belong to the air force, not the army.  So politics ensue.  Yes, sadly, some things are more important to those in power rather than saving lives in combat.

But really, this is all kind of superfluous. Instead, we read about Johnny Oliver and his escapades with friends, family and girlfriends.  The latter is the low point in this book. It seems he meets up with an army widow named Liza.  She recently lost her husband, has a young toddler and never smiles. The relationship between John and Liza seems forced and unbelievable.  It’s not great reading to constantly read about them fighting over and over again. She refuses to marry another soldier, yet her attempts (and, oh, there are attempts) to get Oliver to quit the army are futile and frustrating.

Anyway – it should also be pointed out that this book is a parallel tale to book 7 – The New Breed.  Most of the action in these two books occurs at the same time, yet from different viewpoints and different places.  I enjoyed book 7 as well, but don’t really remember much about it. In fact, there’s not a lot about any of these books that I really remember, other than I liked them overall.  It’s also refreshing to see two ‘originals’, Felter and Lowell, get a lot less page time.  Sure, it’s nice to see them again, but their schticks get old after a while. Speaking of ‘originals’, the third amigo, MacMillan, isn’t around for this book. I’m not sure why.  Did he get killed in an earlier book?  Can’t remember.

These books go by quickly, even though they’re each about 400 pages in the paperback format.  I’ve enjoyed them all including this one.  Something good must be said for an author who writes so many war books with so little war that somehow seems to be received so well from so many people.