Nuclear Weapons of the United States; An Illustrated History

Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1996. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 236, [4] pages. Decorative endpapers. Profusely illustrated (most in color). Contents include Introduction, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles; Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles; Submarines; Bombers; Free-Fall Bombs; Air to Surface Missiles; Tactical Aircraft; Ground and Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles; Intermediate and Medium Range Ballistic Missiles; Short Range Ballistic Missiles; Anti-Aircraft and Anti-Missile Weapons; Nuclear Anti-Submarine Weapons; Nuclear Artillery; Atomic Demolition Munitions (ADM), and Bibliography. Note: on the Contents page Ballistics is misspelled in the Chapter 1 title as 'Ballistifc'. This error may have been corrected during the production run, making this one of the early copies produced. This book covers every nuclear delivery system the United States ever deployed. With few exceptions, each weapon and system is illustrated by either color or black and white photographs. Each weapon also comes with specifications and a history of its development, deployment and retirement (if retired). James N. Gibson is an Aerospace Engineer with over a decade of experience working on such programs as the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, and the Delta II and Delta IV launch vehicles. His father was also an aerospace engineer who worked on such projects as the Navaho cruise Missile, the XB-70 bomber, the Apollo command and service modules, and the Space Shuttle. Thus James Gibson was born into the United States space and missile programs and is able to recognize on sight various missiles and rockets. This however doesn't explain why he would write on this subject. That reason is because by the time he was in college he had become aware that most of the books being published in the 80s on nuclear delivery systems were filled with errors. And the primary error was the deletion of cruise missile systems that didn't fit the ideology of various groups. To correct this and place before the public all the nuclear systems the United States has ever deployed he began writing. Since then he has produced two books on nuclear delivery systems, a book on the Navaho cruise missile (that was instrumental in the development of the first American ICBMs and the later Apollo moon rocket), and in more recent years books on the American Manned Space program and the War of 1812. Probably the best review the author has ever had on his work on nuclear delivery systems came from the late Chuck Hansen who produced the still tremendous "US Nuclear Weapons; The Secret History." He had received a legacy of Air Force images and offered me those images that involved the missiles carried by B-52s because they were "my subject matter." Another surprise review came from a reviewer of Norman Polmar's book, "The US Nuclear Arsenal." I was reading a review of this book and suddenly found the reviewer was comparing it to Gibson's (and it was a favorable comparison). Seems the reviewer liked his use of color images.