The Viper Story, Part II
Test & Training F-16s

Reid Air Publications

Reviewed by Mike Long

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This is the second installment from Jake Melampy of Reid Air Publications covering F-16 units past and present.  The Viper Story, Part II focuses on the Test and Training units of the U.S. Air Force, to include Air Guard and Reserve, as well as the U.S. Navy.

This is the first of Jake’s books to come in hard cover and is laid out like all the others. It opens with a brief history and mission description of the test and training wings flying the F-16 before moving on to the specific units themselves. Chapters are in numerical order of the units and give a brief history of each wing and squadron.

Each chapter title page contains unit specific information, badges and Wing tail flash.  This book is literally filled with color pictures of each squadron’s aircraft showing specifics of block type and markings. Ever having the modeler in mind, Jake includes photographs of colorful squadron badges, travel pods, and even wheel chocks.

There were a few personal surprised in the book being the USAF Aggressor Wings and the Navy Adversary Squadrons. In this aspect, Jake photographically covers all the various paint schemes worn by these units.
Another nice surprise came when I got to the chapter covering my unit, the 178th FW, Ohio ANG. This chapter was in two sections, starting with the block 30 aircraft currently assigned. There is a nice two page spread covering the resident Mig-killer, 86-0262. The second section includes the newly acquired Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mission to train the Royal Netherlands Air Force using their F-16 MLUs.

This book provides and excellent single source reference for anyone interested in the units that flew the General Dynamic / Lockheed F-16 in the Test and Training role. The overall quality of this book is very good in that it has a sturdy hard cover and is printed on fine, satin paper.

All the pictures are all extremely well taken covering the many phases of flight, from ground taxi to air to air shots.

With thanks to Jake Melampy / Reid Air Publishing for the review sample.