Beautiful Sabre: A USAF Pilot’s Memoir of Gunnery School and Flying the Storied F-86 F

In the spring of 1957, Edward Mills was awarded the silver wings of a pilot in the United States Air Force. Because he finished first in his pilot training class, he had his pick of assignments. To his unbounded delight, on the list of openings was one that he, and many other brand new, single-engine jet pilots, coveted above all others: the opportunity to fly the storied North American F-86F Sabre, the great, air-to-air victory bird of the Korean War.This is his story, from his days in ROTC at Princeton, through a year of pilot training in Texas, to eventually flying non-combat missions in the Beautiful Sabre-and all that transpired in between.