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The Hunters (novel)
The Hunters is James Salter's debut novel and a tale of USAF fighter pilots during the Korean War, first published in 1956. The novel was the basis for the 1958 film adaptation of the novel starring Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner with a different storyline.
Under his birthname James A. Horowitz, Salter himself was a fighter pilot with the rank of captain who saw combat from February to August 1952. He kept a detailed diary of his tour and the novel closely follows a chronology of events he experienced as an F-86 Sabre pilot with the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, based at Kimpo Air Base, Korea.
Salter was 31 when he published the novel and made his protagonist the same age. He describes 31 as being "the end for him" as a fighter pilot: "...not too old, certainly; but it would not be long. His eyes weren't good enough any more. With an athlete, the legs failed first. With a fighter pilot, it was the eyes." Salter resigned from the Air Force soon after the publication of The Hunters to pursue an alternate passion, writing.
On a frozen February evening in Fuchū, Japan, Captain Cleve Connell (Captain Cleve Saville in the original edition) restlessly waits for assignment orders completing his transfer to Korea. Billeted for four days in a warehouse, he has tired of seeing Tokyo – and of watching others come and go – and his clean laundry is nearly gone. He walks to dinner at the Officers Club reflecting on his ability as a flyer (he is a good one, with a reputation among his peacetime peers), his reluctance to leave the Air Force although pressured by civilian friends to do so, and his desire to test himself in combat. He senses that his feelings of time lost and lack of accomplishment are corrosive.
He shares dinner with a fellow pilot en route to the war and while they are discussing women, the war in general, and the tedium of waiting, a group of loud young lieutenants enters the club. One stands out from the rest, however, emanating cool confidence amidst their obvious insecurity, and mildly harasses a pretty Japanese bar waitress. Cleve's companion chastises the lieutenant, who reluctantly backs down, resisting just enough that Cleve catches his name in the discussion: Pell. Cleve shrugs aside the episode and the next morning receives his orders.
He arrives in Korea on a frigid afternoon and despite a feeling of exhilaration, his first impression of Korea is of a dreary, impoverished country made drearier by the slow-moving military bureaucracy. Assigned to an elite fighter wing at the primitive Kimpo air base, Cleve arrives to find it abuzz with an outgoing mission and talk of a bad end to a bad week: the leading ace in the wing has just been shot down and killed. He meets pilots he knew in Panama, just after the end of World War II, including Carl Abbott, now a major. Cleve is mildly shocked to find that his young comrade of just a few years ago now looks old, out of shape, and lacking in spirit. Though genuinely glad to see Cleve, Major Abbott's effectiveness as a combat pilot is gone; he has been put out to pasture and does not care.
That evening, in the officers club, he greets his wing commander, Colonel Imil, a former squadron commander in Panama. Imil is a larger-than-life personality who shows off Cleve to the veterans as a "real fighter pilot", and enthusiastically introduces him to Colonel Moncavage, a former ace just returned to flying. Moncavage's cool response prompts Imil to goad him, revealing a competitive friction between the two commanders.
Cleve is put through a brief period of training. One morning, he goes to the operations office to follow the progress of a mission over the radio. The operations officer is Desmond, another old friend. In their discussion, he learns that Desmond also feels that Abbott "doesn't have it any more" and the conversation turns to the quality of their MiG opponents. While nearly all are poor adversaries, a few are very good, particularly one nicknamed Casey Jones, the only MiG pilot to best Imil in a fight. Desmond reassures him that Casey Jones' distinctively black-striped MiG isn't seen on missions anymore, his tour apparently over.
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The Hunters (novel)
The Hunters is James Salter's debut novel and a tale of USAF fighter pilots during the Korean War, first published in 1956. The novel was the basis for the 1958 film adaptation of the novel starring Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner with a different storyline.
Under his birthname James A. Horowitz, Salter himself was a fighter pilot with the rank of captain who saw combat from February to August 1952. He kept a detailed diary of his tour and the novel closely follows a chronology of events he experienced as an F-86 Sabre pilot with the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, based at Kimpo Air Base, Korea.
Salter was 31 when he published the novel and made his protagonist the same age. He describes 31 as being "the end for him" as a fighter pilot: "...not too old, certainly; but it would not be long. His eyes weren't good enough any more. With an athlete, the legs failed first. With a fighter pilot, it was the eyes." Salter resigned from the Air Force soon after the publication of The Hunters to pursue an alternate passion, writing.
On a frozen February evening in Fuchū, Japan, Captain Cleve Connell (Captain Cleve Saville in the original edition) restlessly waits for assignment orders completing his transfer to Korea. Billeted for four days in a warehouse, he has tired of seeing Tokyo – and of watching others come and go – and his clean laundry is nearly gone. He walks to dinner at the Officers Club reflecting on his ability as a flyer (he is a good one, with a reputation among his peacetime peers), his reluctance to leave the Air Force although pressured by civilian friends to do so, and his desire to test himself in combat. He senses that his feelings of time lost and lack of accomplishment are corrosive.
He shares dinner with a fellow pilot en route to the war and while they are discussing women, the war in general, and the tedium of waiting, a group of loud young lieutenants enters the club. One stands out from the rest, however, emanating cool confidence amidst their obvious insecurity, and mildly harasses a pretty Japanese bar waitress. Cleve's companion chastises the lieutenant, who reluctantly backs down, resisting just enough that Cleve catches his name in the discussion: Pell. Cleve shrugs aside the episode and the next morning receives his orders.
He arrives in Korea on a frigid afternoon and despite a feeling of exhilaration, his first impression of Korea is of a dreary, impoverished country made drearier by the slow-moving military bureaucracy. Assigned to an elite fighter wing at the primitive Kimpo air base, Cleve arrives to find it abuzz with an outgoing mission and talk of a bad end to a bad week: the leading ace in the wing has just been shot down and killed. He meets pilots he knew in Panama, just after the end of World War II, including Carl Abbott, now a major. Cleve is mildly shocked to find that his young comrade of just a few years ago now looks old, out of shape, and lacking in spirit. Though genuinely glad to see Cleve, Major Abbott's effectiveness as a combat pilot is gone; he has been put out to pasture and does not care.
That evening, in the officers club, he greets his wing commander, Colonel Imil, a former squadron commander in Panama. Imil is a larger-than-life personality who shows off Cleve to the veterans as a "real fighter pilot", and enthusiastically introduces him to Colonel Moncavage, a former ace just returned to flying. Moncavage's cool response prompts Imil to goad him, revealing a competitive friction between the two commanders.
Cleve is put through a brief period of training. One morning, he goes to the operations office to follow the progress of a mission over the radio. The operations officer is Desmond, another old friend. In their discussion, he learns that Desmond also feels that Abbott "doesn't have it any more" and the conversation turns to the quality of their MiG opponents. While nearly all are poor adversaries, a few are very good, particularly one nicknamed Casey Jones, the only MiG pilot to best Imil in a fight. Desmond reassures him that Casey Jones' distinctively black-striped MiG isn't seen on missions anymore, his tour apparently over.