Review: Biboraya Dual Mount Trash Bucket Sliding Shelf

I have a sliding drawer in one of my lower kitchen cabinets that conceals a pair of trash tubs. It came with the house when we bought it and it's a nice way to have a wastebasket that's out of view. The two tubs sit in a rack with two holes in it for the trash tubs to hang in, and that rack is affixed with some custom welded tabs that attach it to a pair of otherwise normal-looking drawer slide rails. But those custom tabs are specific to this model of device; you can't just buy a replacement part at a local hardware store because it's not a common standard part.

Now this isn't one of those posts where I bitch about poor craftsmanship. This slide-out tray is actually pretty cool and lasted fourteen years. But one of the drawer slides broke a clip that was holding bearings in place. Bearings fell out and one of the slides became untracked. When I started repair analysis, I decided I didn't want to buy a new fixture that was an exact replacement. I wanted something simpler, more easily found, and more cost effective. 

I found a dual tub sliding shelf on Amazon for about half what an exact replacement would have cost me. It was a simple metal cage that held the two tubs, and was sitting on a set of interlinked sliding bars mounted on the floor of the cabinet rather than on the sides like the old one. That all looked like it would be a much simpler mechanism to install and maintain. 

Amazon did its usual good job of getting it to me in two days. But it didn't take long after that to get frustrated with terrible instructions. This is not a super complicated device and the manufacturer made it about as goofy and confusing as they could have. 

First, you assemble the tub cage by fastening to side rails to the bottom of the cage. That should have been really easy except that the instructions tell you to use a screw, and when you look at the parts, there are only three screws for the step which has four connection points, two on each side, left and right. Why are there only three screws? 

There are another five screws of the same diameter and threading, but about two millimeters shorter than the three identified for the first step. So if you're careful, you can also use one of those to handle the fourth screw point on the cage assembly. The instructions say you can watch an installation video, but the video does a terrible job of explaining the three screws for the four connection points in the first step.

Next is the step where you complete the tub cage by adding two light bars to the top front and top rear of the cage to form the rectangular shape. Already at this point the cage is sort of leaning funny, but these two bars to help correct the form. The back one is super easy to install, it's just a dowel with curved ends that you drop into some holes on the back of the cage and it's held by gravity. But the front bar has two screw holes and you have to use two short screws to affix; the thread tolerances here are not very good and the screws go in with difficulty. However, I finally get it done.

The next step is to affix the tub cage to the sliding rails. That's not too hard, and you use the leftover screws from step one. They do work even if a little on the short side.  

The next step is tricky. It is time to install the cage and rail assembly into the cabinet, and to affix mounting brackets to the door. This isn't difficult but requires some precision because if the cage or the door brackets are installed out of alignment, you'll be stuck unscrewing the parts and having a bear of a time getting them lined up so they'll all fit together and also have the door fit nicely against the cabinet so it covers up the opening correctly. 

Here's where the instructions won a few points back for the manufacturer from me. The kit includes two paper templates. One has outlines of the cage assembly footprint. You put this one down on the cabinet floor with the front edge marked, and you line it up with the front edge of the cabinet space. The second template is for lining up the brackets at the proper location on the door panel. It also is marked so that you can line up the bottom edge to the first template's front edge. There are markings on both templates so you can line them up. The idea here is that the templates will show you where to start your holes for the wood screws. It actually works well and I got it right the first time, getting the cage assembly fastened to the cabinet floor and the door brackets on the door. Then the final step is to mount the door brackets to the front of the cage where there are two housings to put the door brackets in. 

The only problem I had in this last step was that the wood screws the manufacturer provides are not very good quality and I broke a couple of them on installation. Fortunately enough of them worked that the job could be completed.

In the end, I gave the unit four out of five stars. I wanted to give three-and-a-half, but Amazon doesn't support half star ratings. While the price was much nicer than the OEM rack and rails I had before, it wasn't exactly cheap, and you can tell the quality is middling at best. It does, however, work, and if I get ten years out of it it'll have been a worthy purchase. If you end up getting one, get your own wood screws for the final steps. 

Comparison: Squadron Signal book 1086 U-2 Spyplane 1988 vs 2002 editions

This'll be a quick one. The U-2 Dragon Lady is one of the intriguing aircraft from the Lockheed "Skunkworks" division that was ultimately made famous for developing secret reconnaissance aircraft, notably the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird.

Squadron Signal Publishing released a book about the U-2 in 1988 as part of the "in action" line, book number 1086. Fourteen years later in 2002 they would publish an update with an additional eight pages, covering the use of the U-2 since the first book's release.

So if you're a collector and you don't have them, do you get both or just the update? It depends on what you like. I love the cover art and while sometimes an update to an earlier edition of a Squadron book has the same artwork, in this instance they chose to put on a new cover. So I bought both because both are nice covers. 

The original release had a Don Greer painting of the famous incident where Francis Gary Powers, a U-2 pilot, was shot down while on a recon mission over Russia. It was huge news back in May, 1960 when it happened. Since this is easily the most famous incident involving the U-2, it is curious Squadron decided to go with a different cover for the update.

The 2002 edition features a newer variant of the U-2, a U-2R, in 1991 during Desert Shield and Desert Storm deployment. I can't find a signature on the cover, so I has to assume that Don Greer is also the artist as he's the only contributor credited with "color" art in the credits.

If you're tight on cash, just get the update. You'll miss out only on the 1988 edition's cover and perhaps you can live with that. If you're a completist, get both, and if you're a sucker for the art like me, get both. 

If you can't find the update, which appears to be rarer in the wild than the 1988 edition, then just get the first edition as it's a great book even without the updates. 

Book 1086 was published before Squadron started printing the disclaimer that the "in action" books were only supposed to be focused on chronicling the development of a craft and its development through variants and not include other information. Earlier entries in the "in action" series like 1086 are, in my opinion, better reads since they tend to include some operational history and sometimes even pilot testimonials, and are therefore more interesting. I've touched on this before, but later in the game, the "in action" books started to become very light on text and more like picture books with captions; still good reads but with less meaty content.

Another Story from a Used Book

A few months back, I wrote of hidden stories in used books [blogger]. I came across another interesting one a couple days ago, as part of my bid to shore up my Squadron Signal book collection. I purchased a bundle of used aircraft books at eBay and in reviewing the copies, I saw a couple had an address label in the inside front cover.

The label identified CAPT Bob Munsey and LCDR Rosemary Munsey, likely the former owners of the book. I was curious about the history this hinted at, and did a little research. I was not fully prepared for the journey this search would take me on.

It all starts well enough. The ranks listed by the names on the label indicate they were both in the US Navy. This appears to be true: there are publicly available obituaries for both.

Charles Robert Munsey Jr. [funeralsolutions.net] served twenty-nine years in the US Navy. He attended the United States Naval Academy and spent time on a destroyer and several carriers. Some posts on his tribute page point to his service as an aviation maintenance officer. He retired while working at the Pentagon with the rank of Captain. He was involved in church activities and, no surprise given his ownership of some Squadron Signal books, modeling and aircraft restoration. One of his sons, Bill Munsey, has a video clip from a news piece on Bob [YouTube] taking a ride on a restored Ford tri-motor.

Without concrete evidence or testimonial, one must assume Munsey met his wife in the navy. Rosemary [scholar.lib.vt.edu] appears to have been quite accomplished and reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander back in the eighties, when women didn't have the same presence, mobility, and support they have in the military now is quite a feat. Like Munsey, Rosemary worked in aviation maintenance at various posts around the nation. 

Rosemary Munsey passed away in 1996 from breast cancer. Charles Robert Munsey Jr. passed away in 2023. You can fill in one blank and figure the aviation books I picked up in 2024 probably ultimately came from Munsey's estate sale.

Then, looking over the posts in the Robert Munsey obituary page, some ugliness materializes. A person claiming to be his niece points to Munsey's record as a sex offender. And this too appears to be true. Munsey was convicted in 1999 in Virginia and after moving to Florida was active in the Florida Action Committee, an organization with the goal of advocating for reasonable sex offender laws. 

This discovery saddened me because minus the criminal past, Munsey would have absolutely been the kind of person I would have enjoyed chatting with. His military service and love for aviation are things I respect. 

Let's take this as an opportunity to learn. Browsing a few more of the articles about Munsey, I learn there's a community of sex offenders that have paid their debts but now cannot integrate fully into society. There is an understandable stigma around them and I too would give pause to an association. And yet, isn't this using too broad a brush without investigating the situations in more detail? Some of the posts on Munsey's FAC memorial page tell of an offender that was misled into the crime due to falsified records on a person's age. Another laments of the loneliness and sense of abandonment felt and the challenges of trying to find a job. Offenders in any crime should pay, no question, but after that, what do you do to ensure they have a sustainable path to being productive members of society?

I haven't named any other parties except for those on the address label from the book out of respect for the family. All of this is public if you want to see it for yourself. And my condolences to all involved parties. 

From buying and selling old airplane books to pondering crime and punishment. What an exercise for a Sunday morning!

Comparison: Squadron Signal P-47 Thunderbolt in action (book 1208 vs 10208/50208)

Well this is interesting. I'm continuing to contrast the various editions of Squadron Signal books as I get them, in cases where there was an updated edition. This exercise is to help both myself and other collectors know when it's worth getting both editions or if there's no real reason to get both except for completeness.

Sometimes the update is exactly the same as the original release except for several new pages of material. In these cases, you really only need the updated version. Last post, I found that the A-4 Skyhawk Walk Around editions (5541 vs 25041/65041) had an overlap of about 85% of the material, but as both books are the same number of pages, the editors omitted some of the original content to make room for new content. I didn't always agree with the choices made for the updated edition, but mostly they were the same book.

It appears that early updates in the "in action" series were incremental add-ons of pages. More recent updates seem to have more changes. Today I'm looking at P-47 Thunderbolt in action, book 1208 from 2007, versus book 25041(softcover)/65041(hardcover) from 2014. And in this case, collectors, I would recommend buying both books. 

The books do have some duplication of content, but that's mostly in the diagrams and charts. The most obvious differences:

• The authors of the books are different (Larry Davis for 1208, and David Doyle for the 2014 edition). 
• The updated edition has eighty-eight pages to the earlier version's sixty.
• The books feature different paintings for both front and back covers although all four appear to be from the prolific Don Greer, very much a household name for Squadron books. I love the art, so I'd get both editions just for that, but the differences continue.
• There's only a minimal duplication of the photos. Doyle appears to have taken pains to use different pictures than Davis, even when the photos might be similar and of the same version of the plane. 
• Much of update's extra pages cover other experimental variants of the Thunderbolt.
• The update has a higher number of color photos.
• There is some overlap in text content. Doyle has reworded much of it in his edition and often will reduce the amount of text provided for each variant of the P-47. Compensating for this, however, he has added many more photos and captions.

The books are different enough that a detailed comparison would be painstaking and unproductive. The main differences are sufficient to justify getting both books.

Comparison: Squadron Signal A-4 Skyhawk Walk Around (book 5541 versus 65041)

As I'm putting together my Squadron Signal collection, I am trying to not buy older editions as the newer ones are usually better and may have more pages.

The evolution of updated editions in Squadron's history is a little funky. Early on, they'd update an existing "in action" book, for example, by keeping the same cover art and material but simply adding more pages, usually about eight. They'd add an "updated" banner across one of the corners of the book. But the new version would essentially be identical to the previous one except for the new pages. In those cases it is an easy decision to skip the earlier edition unless you're a completist and want both. 

Things got weirder after a while. Sometimes the newer edition would have a different cover. Sometimes the newer edition would have different text or pictures. Now it became harder to decide which one to buy if you were coming into it late as I am. 

So I'm going to do some cataloging of differences between editions. I'll probably do a table of differences at some point for all the books where I can see the differences, but in some cases, like the case of the A-4 Skyhawk Walk Around, I discovered marked differences, and some of the changes aren't necessarily for the better. Here goes...

I'm looking at the A-4 Skyhawk Walk Around book, number 5541 (2006) versus the later edition released in softcover as book 25041 and hardcover as book 65041 (both 2013). What did Squadron decide to change in the seven-year update? And apologies for the poor readability of the table; tables aren't Blogger's forte.

A-4 Skyhawk Walk Around, 5541 vs 65041

Cover Art

The front and back covers are the same in both editions. I can't fault them for this because the front cover is a great painting of an A-4 pilot named John McCain standing in front of his Skyhawk, before two fateful incidents. The first would be when a weapon misfired while McCain was still on deck, leading to the tragic fire on the USS Forrestal. The second would be later when McCain was shot down over Vietnam. 

The back cover shows an Israeli Skyhawk in colorful camouflage.

So far, so good.

Frontispiece

5541 features a nice side profile shot of two US Marine A-4 jets flying in formation by a rock structure. It's a nice photo.

The 2013 edition replaces the 2006 edition's photo with a nice shot of the Blue Angels flying the A-4 in a pyramid formation. I like both photos but 2013's is more dramatic and so I have to give Squadron props on this change.

Introduction and Indicia

Almost all the "in action" and "walk around" books started with at least a half page up to a few pages of solid text introduction that often summarized the story of the featured aircraft. 5541 and 65041 have the same text in the introduction, but the 2006 edition includes a small headshot of aircraft designer Ed Heinemann. Why did the later edition remove this? Heinemann is one of the most successful and beloved of aircraft designers and it's a disappointment his picture was removed. It's possible there were licensing issues preventing Squadron from using the picture but the omission is no less disappointing even if justifiable. 

Book 25041/65041 does a better job with the indicia page. Both books include the author's acknowledgement statement and some copyright information. But the 2013 edition also includes the "About the Walk Around Series" text block explaining the goal of the category. In addition, the newer edition also includes thumbnails of the front and back cover and captions for each. The 2006 edition has the captions but not the thumbnails.

Body

Most of the editions share the same photos and text but unlike earlier updates that feature identical material except for a new set of pages, there were several changes in the Skyhawk Walk Around. Here are some of the most notable:

Pages	25041/65041 Changes from 5541	Comment
3,4	Subject: Aircraft development.  Grammatical error corrected in one photo caption
5	Subject: A-4B pictures "Navy Attack Squadron" added before VA-76. Upper right corner picture of A4B is zoomed in.	The zoom cuts off the tail, even though caption is discussing distinguishing features, including one on the tail.
6	Subject: Cutaway diagram Drawing is slightly smaller. Some text slightly rearranged. VMA-225 is prefaced by "Marine Attack Squadron".	Would not have reduced size of cutaway as it's already hard to see a picture with so many details.
7	Subject: JATO bottles and refueling Upper left pic is cropped. Caption for upper right photo is expanded.	This was a good crop; the part cut out was just extraneous terrain and none of the aircraft shot was affected.
8	Subject: A-4C, A-4F, Blue Angel Same pictures as 5541 but rearranged to give the Blue Angel A-4 an enlargement. Other captions were slightly rearranged with no loss of information.
9	Subject: Gladiators pic, tailhook study Captions enhanced with italicized carrier names and a few extra details, such as noting that one adversary A-4 at Top Gun has a Cuban flag insignia.
10	Subject: B&W TA-4E pics Captions better split between the two pictures
11	Subject: TA-4 FACs Caption regarding VA-126 is significantly reduced, with a sentences about the squadron history removed.	That's cool stuff, why remove it?
12	Subject: Fueling probe and nose Additional and more detailed captions.
13	Subject: Radome Reworked captions, more about Israeli air force
14, 15	Subject: B&W fuselage and engine spread Resized photos, added more detail in captions
16, 17	Subject: Air brakes, chaff dispenser, nose gear No major changes
18, 19	Subject: B&W photo set Same pictures, captions rearranged, and one caption on page 19 is misplaced with wrong picture.
20, 21	Subject: TA-4 color spread Same photos, more captions added on page 21
22, 23	Subject: B&W photo spread with cutaway drawing Nearly identical.
24	Subject: Cockpit
25	Subject: Ejection seat pictures Same pictures but one seat photo is zoomed, showing closer view of shoulder harness and overhead ejection activation handle while cutting out seat and lower activation handle. Some extra detail in the captions.	Didn't like this zoom choice, but you can see the lower handle in other photos.
26	Subject: Cockpit panel diagram Numbers in diagram items list are adjusted to be consecutive unique integers. Original has 18 and 18A, update has 18 and 19.
27	Subject: Ejection seat diagram No major changes
28, 29	Subject: Cockpit detail Same photos, some reoriented and zoomed, some added detail in captions
30, 31	Subject: Cockpit detail Same pictures, minor modifications to some captions
32, 33	Subject: Cockpit detail
34	Subject: Intake detail
35 - 37	Subject: Tail detail Functionally identical, some rewording of captions.
38	Subject: Antenna diagram, fuselage details No major changes
39	Subject: Ejection sequence diagram, fuselage details
40	Subject: A-4F color shots
41	Subject: Export A-4 pictures
42, 43	Subject: B&W spread, tie-down location diagram Captions modified. Mention of USS Intrepid loses its code designation (CVS-11)	Not sure why this was done, there was room to leave it.
44, 45	Subject: Landing gear detail Pg 45, one of the B&W pictures of an A-4 on carrier approach is replaced by a color shot of one doing a touch and go.	Color is appreciated, but the original photo showed the tailhook extended. There are however other photos showing the tailhook down in book
46	Subject: Variant evolution profile drawings
47	Subject: A-4E specification sheet
48	Subject: Wheel wells and tailhook and catapult attachment points Pictures have been resized and formatted in more structured 3x2 arrangement
49	Subject: A-4 squadron pictures Caption detail removed on landing gear operation in event of hydraulic failure: Gear is hydraulic but gear doors are mechanical. In event of hydraulic failure, the gear rests on gear doors. Pilot can manually release the doors and the landing gear will fall into deployed position	This is a great bit of detail that's perhaps not important to modelers but nice for historians. I wish they would have not removed it.
50, 51	Subject: A-4E and OA-4M profile diagrams
52	Subject: A-4M color shot, plus two landing gear detail shots The A-4M shot is completely omitted in updated edition, but the two landing gear shots are kept and zoomed. The A-4M shot's caption had a mix of information about VMA-324 and some history of why the A-4 was originally designed for the marines. Most of its relevant  A-4 information is retained as extra language in the two landing gear picture captions.	I liked the photo that was removed, but fortunately they retained most of the interesting A-4 data from the caption. The zoomed landing gear shots are useful and probably very helpful for modelers.
53	Subject: Two color shots of A-4 squadrons, one VMA-331 and one Top Gun A-4 Functionally identical, some reformatting and zoom of the adversary A-4 picture
54, 55	Subject: B&W wing detail spread Nearly identical, a sentence from one caption was added to one of the others.
56	Subject: Control surface detail Improved caption positioning
57	Subject: A-4 squadron pictures
58	Subject: Ordnance photos Error: Caption for loading of Mk-82 on an A-4 is used twice; thus one caption is lost: "Marine loads 20 mm rounds in an A-4E of VMA-331 at Chu Lai, December 1967. Each gun weighed 88 pounds."	Come on, man.
59	Subject: Ordnance photos One B&W photo of an A4D-2N (A-4C) doing AGM-12C Bullpup missile testing at Pax River, is replaced by a color photo of a Harpoon missile closeup.	Some of the replaced photo's Bullpup information transferred to a different picture's caption. This change is OK, although I liked the original photo, the update shows a newer weapon in the Harpoon. A fair trade, and there are Bullpups in other photos.
60, 61	Subject: A-4 squadron and some ordnance pictures
62, 63	Subject: A-4 squadron and some ordnance photos
64, 65	Subject: Variety of adversary, test, and export A-4s Some photo resizing. Details about squadron VC-8 were dropped in update.
66	Subject: B&W Vietnam Skyhawks set
67	Subject: B&W Vietnam Skyhawks set (side  shot of A-4E of VA-144 in flight; a Marine A-4E in hangar at Bien Hoa; a group of A-4s lined up for aerial refueling) This page is completely dropped in update with 5541's page 71 in this space instead.	I guess I can live without yet another profile shot and the hangar shot doesn't show much, but the refueling shot is really cool and I wish it was kept.
68, 69	Subject: Color profile drawings spread Some caption positions changed
70	Subject: B&W Vietnam Skyhawks set Caption positioning changed
71	Subject: B&W Vietnam Skyhawks set Updated edition does not have this page. Instead are some color shots of export (Singapore) A-4s. In 5541 this appears on page 80
72, 73	Subject: Color profiles drawings spread
74, 75	Subject: B&W Vietnam Skyhawks set These pages are missing in updated edition. In their place is a Blue Angels A-4 color spread.	I like the Blue Angles, but not sure I like this decision.
76, 77	Subject: Color 1970s A-4 photos
78, 79	Subject: B&W Vietnam Skyhawks set These pages are missing in updated edition. Instead is a color spread of export A-4s.	Hate losing good Vietnam shots, and the original captions have good information on weapons usage. But the color is nice and export information is a legit part of A-4 history
80	Subject: Singapore export color shots This page is moved to page 71 in updated edition, and instead is a fitting farewell shot of the A-4 against a sunset.	I like the artistic and poetic update, plus the caption identifies the end-of-service date.

The moral of the story is that while most of the time the updated edition adds on to the older edition and you don't lose much material, sometimes that's not the case. 

The Missing Pages

Some of the original pages removed from the later edition follow. It was a shame to lose these since there's a lot to learn from the Vietnam material.

Pages 67, 74, 75, 78, and 79.

Old reviews: The Sum of All Fears

Another movie review. How funny that long before the tendencies of today's Hollywood, I was already calling for a source material's canon white role to be portrayed by a minority. It was all in good fun, of course, and my suggestion was driven by merit of the better actor. But any of you young liberals pondering whether you can get a cheap self-affirming virtue signal by slapping the racist label on me can eat this receipt. I was way ahead of you in 2002.

After insulting the Pearl Harbor movie and crapping on Afleck in this review, I was probably too harsh. I thought Afleck did a good job in Argo and I put his Batman in the upper half of the cavalcade of people that have taken that role since 1989.

The Sum of All Fears, unfortunately, turns out to be not particularly memorable. I barely even remember the film while I can recall a great deal of The Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger (granted, probably the best of the Clancy movies). 

--------------------

The Sum of All Fears

by Bernard Dy

Article Type: Movie Review
Article Date: June 17, 2002

Huh?

Somebody screwed up. When Harrison Ford quit playing Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan character in film, the powers that be naturally needed a replacement. So who would bring a mature dignity to the role? Who could embody the distinguished blend of family man and professional intelligence agent that is Jack Ryan? How about Morgan Freeman? Indeed, Freeman is in the latest interpretation of a Clancy novel, The Sum of All Fears, but the filmmakers goofed and put him in the wrong role!

You think I jest? You think Morgan Freeman cannot play an Irishman? Morgan Freeman could play heck out of anyone in The Sum of All Fears, and he does. You think the Irish couldn't produce a Black CIA agent? Please. Give those resourceful characters a pint and they can make anything happen. These are the guys that beat back England with swords and skirts. The real jest is from Paramount. Ben Affleck is playing Jack Ryan now, and that's a joke, at least for die-hard Jack Ryan fans.

Morgan Freeman as Cabot (left) speaks to Ryan played by Ben Affleck

The Name is Ryan, Jack Ryan

It's a changing of the guard, and it's evident that Jack Ryan has become America's version of James Bond. Just as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and others took turns carrying Bond's banner, Ryan the celluloid hero is something greater than his papyrus counterpart: a Hollywood franchise. Indeed, for all the awkwardness of it, Affleck's Ryan is flushing money into the pockets of the film's decision-makers faster than the shock wave of a nuclear explosion.

Clancy readers already know that Affleck is too young to be a convincing Ryan in the existing continuity of the films, which loosely follow the order of the books. The Sum of All Fears doesn't try to explain this, nor does it totally ignore the change as the Bond films did through the various incarnations of Bond, Moneypenny, M, and Q. What happens is that The Sum of All Fears behaves as if the other Ryan films don't exist. Affleck's Ryan is a new agent in the intelligence business. His girlfriend (and wife to be, if the continuity picks up from here), Cathy Muller, is also fresh into her career as a doctor. Bridget Moynahan plays Muller in a light role, but she's very healthy looking and between her and Affleck there's plenty of eye candy for the audience. There's no reference to any of Ryan's past heroics because in this timeline, they no longer exist. Other characters from the books are here, like Mary Pat Foley and William Cabot, though Cabot is very different from his source counterpart.

Ryan with Clark played by Liev Shreiber

Super Sunday

The basic story from the book, however, manages to stay fairly close to the original. A nuclear device mounted on an Israeli A-4 Skyhawk in 1973 is lost when the aircraft is shot down. When it resurfaces nearly thirty years later, a group of Neo-Nazis is quick to purchase it, with the intention of detonating it in America at the Super Bowl football event. They've also arranged for simultaneous execution of a deceitful attack on American forces to entice America and Russia into war.

Complicating matters is the rumor that the Russian President, Nemerov, is losing control over his military and that he's becoming erratic. Ryan enters the scene because the CIA's director, William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) knows Ryan did a research paper on Nemerov and wants him on the CIA's Russian response team. Cabot in the novel is a hollow manager, practically a puppet for others in the government, but in the movie he's a good guy and played well by Freeman. Cabot mentors Ryan in the ways of diplomacy and guides his work in the CIA.

Ryan at the Russia desk

The movie makes other alterations. Aside from dropping the usual subplots and details to contain the length of the movie, they changed the terrorists from Middle Eastern, Native American, and German to Neo-Nazi. Given some concern over political correctness, this is an understandable move. Gutless, but understandable. The various subplot omissions are a little more disappointing. In the movie Clear and Present Danger, the creators maintain the story of both Ryan and his counterpart in Columbia, nicely paralleling them until their paths intersect. It added some depth, the kind typical of a Clancy story. There are no threads like this in The Sum of All Fears, leaving it hollow in comparison.

Brave New World

It's clear The Sum of All Fears isn't going to defy the adage that the book is always better than the movie. If we take off our preconception glasses, how does the movie fare? Not bad, but not great either, and director Phil Alden Robinson is as clumsy as any other Hollywood type when it comes to portraying the military.

If you can accept the shift in the Ryan character, The Sum of All Fears is a passable espionage thriller. Affleck is his usual affable self in the role, and Freeman is highly competent as the calm and controlled Cabot. And the film proceeds along at a comfortable pace for a comfortable duration. The terrorist plot is sufficiently creepy. The Affleck Ryan is a kinder, gentler, and weaker Ryan. When presented an opportunity to participate in a spy operation, he refuses to shoot anyone and is reluctant to even carry a weapon, hardly the former US Marine of the Clancy novels. Some would argue this gives him a different dimension from the cavalcade of other action heroes, forcing him to rely more on his wits, intellect, and doctorate degree. It would be an easier argument to accept if Ryan didn't also have to resort to the tired fist fight later in the film, with a guy twice his size and strength.

Ryan with Cathy Muller played by Bridget Moynahan

The two leads are surrounded by a well-stocked bullpen of supporting performers, though their one-dimensional roles waste their talent; Ron Rifkin, Bruce McGill, and James Cromwell have all made better appearances elsewhere. Liev Schreiber does a little better, giving the film much needed grit as CIA operative John Clark.

Director Robinson made The Sum of All Fears after taking a hiatus. His last movie direction was in 1992, and he appears somewhat mismatched for Clancy pictures, which have always competently mixed political intrigue with action. The highest points in the film are actually the humorous exchanges between Freeman and Affleck. The action scenes lack the power of previous Clancy movies, and even other action films. There is little here to compare to the remarkable scene in Clear and Present Danger where the American convoy is ambushed by rocket soldiers, or where a special forces team illuminates a target for an F/A-18's laser guided bomb.

COMBATSIM's readers will notice the remarkable disparity. There's some military influence on the film, but poor execution mars most of it. The opening scene of an Israeli A-4 cruising over the desert is lovely, but it's downhill from there. The film's previews hint of a nuclear bomb scene, and there is one, but it does surprisingly little damage. Electrical devices continue to function normally even after suffering what should have been an electromagnetic pulse. Thousands die at the blast's center, but there are few effects of radiation poisoning save for a few burned bodies, and Ryan, Muller, and the US President (James Cromwell) suffer no ill effects despite being near the blast.

Hello? Yeah, a nuclear bomb went off, but my phone is fine.

The most painful error surrounds the scene where a corrupt Russian officer orders bombers to attack an American aircraft carrier, and they succeed in destroying it. I could maybe believe in a stealth fighter sneaking past American carrier defenses, but an entire squadron of what look like ungainly Russian Backfires getting past E-2C Hawkeyes and F-14s? I don't think so. It was at least interesting to see the carrier's point defense systems in action. Clancy's novel, of course, took a much more realistic approach to the carrier engagement.

Made for Mainstream

Although my ramblings make it sound like The Sum of All Fears is a terrible movie, it would be more accurate to say that it's simply a mainstream movie. The movie is successful for a reason. It addresses current events in a way that's more approachable and less gory than Black Hawk Down does. To its credit, it also accepts that for the cleanliness a guy like Affleck's Ryan keeps in his ethical outlook, the truth is that people like John Clark are performing dirty work for the government. It's a carry-over theme from Clear and Present Danger days, but one that never expires. It will be interesting to see if Affleck sticks to the Ryan role. The balance sheets certainly indicate he will. Harrison Ford would have fit better in the next books, Debt of Honor and especially Executive Orders, but like James Bond did, the Ryan character may begin heavily diverging from the books. And if you don't like Affleck as Ryan, there's always the next changing of the guard.

Old Reviews: Flying Aces and Bomber Missions

I love aviation art. It's a nice blend of environmental art with an injection of man-made objects. Some people don't like it; I've heard artist Dru Blair got hate mail for his aviation paintings. No accounting for taste, or tact, apparently. 

Many years ago I ran across a Friedman/Fairfax booth at a trade show and the people there were kind enough to send me some spec copies of aviation art books they were producing and I reviewed them for Combatsim.com. I thought I did a good job identifying some shortcomings of the books but on GoodReads.com some people found even more to bash, despite loving the art. 

I still own these books and have added several others of this type to my library.  

Flying Aces and Bomber Missions

by Bernard Dy

Article Type: Book Review
Article Date: May 31, 2002


Flying Aces by James H. Kitchens and Bernard C. Nalty
Bomber Missions by G.E. Patrick Murray

'Flying Aces' by James H. Kitchens and Bernard C. Nalty

Words and pictures can each deliver a message, but they aren't mutually exclusive. Text can pack detail into short spaces and spark the intellect; art can bring color and verisimilitude to the imagination. Each has strengths in speaking to a viewer or reader and it's no secret that they can be used together in synergy. The two work together nicely in the Friedman/Fairfax line of military art books.

The volumes in question are a series of art collections, compiling highlights from the work of contemporary military artists. Each oversized book brims with more than a hundred pages of art and text and each follows a particular theme of war. The two observed for this article are Flying Aces by James H. Kitchens and Bernard Nalty, and Bomber Missions by G.E. Patrick Murray. The authors begin each book with a short introduction to their topic, and each page brings gorgeous pictures of artwork accompanied by a short passage describing the scene or contextually relevant matter.

'Bomber Missions' by G.E. Patrick Murray

The stars of each book are easily the marvelous color reproductions of artwork from some of the best in the aviation art business. There are the brilliant works of masters Robert Taylor and Nicolas Trudgian, the unmistakable crisp images from Stan Stokes, and the endearing human ambiance in the paintings of James Dietz. Here too are the fine creations of Gil Cohen, Keith Ferris, Nixon Galloway, William S. Phillips, and more.

The unsung strength of these paintings is not that they're as lovely as they are, but that they even exist. Through them viewers can visit historical sites and witness scenes cameras did not capture.

The artists do as much research as some historians do, and many of these paintings and their captions introduce readers to lesser known squadrons, heroes, and missions. Robert Bailey's Arctic Encounter shows a German aerial raid on English ships. Robert Taylor's Operation Chastise depicts an equally rare image of Avro Lancasters in a dam-busting role. Stan Stokes gives us an uncommon look at the Consolidated B-36 Dominator, the successor to the B-24, in his painting The Hobo Queens. Stokes also comes through for the underdogs several times in the Flying Aces book. In Buffalo Ace, he illustrates the plucky Finn and ace Eino I. Juuttilainen doing his best with the Brewster F2A Buffalo. Stokes also paints a pretty Macchi in his Italian Air Stallion, which honors pilot Adriano Visconti.

It often feels like Stokes weighs in more heavily than the other artists, but complaining about this is like whining that a chocolate chip cookie has too many chocolate chips. And Stokes and the rest do not forego the famous aviators either. Chuck Yeager, Gabby Gabreski, Joe Foss, Adolf Galland, and Gregory Boyington are all here. Between both books, the reader gets exposure to a wide sweep of WWII. There's the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Marines scraping by at Guadalcanal, Rodeos flying over the English Channel, and German jets clawing at bomber formations in the final defense.

Robert Bailey's 'Arctic Encounter'

There are representatives from all the world's air forces, though clearly Bomber Missions could be called "Strategic" Bomber Missions given its bias toward heavy bombers. Where Flying Aces is more cosmopolitan in listing aces from various countries, Bomber Missions skews heavily to the American and English participation in skies over Europe. The Pacific Theater gets less representation, and the US Navy's stalwart SBD Dauntless is completely without mention. Friedman/Fairfax, however, has another art book about the carrier war, and I'm betting it compensates for the omission; just to be sure, COMBATSIM.COM will take a look at it in a future article.

Robert Taylor's 'Operation Chastise'

Although buyers will likely purchase these items for the art, so much so that they might even skip the text, it's encouraging to see some nuggets in the written portions. The captions do a fine job of sharing interesting trivia about the war and the paintings. Judicious use of photos adds to the presentation, and Flying Aces does well including black and white portraits of aces with related paintings. The Flying Aces text, however, sometimes meanders away from the art and leaves a plate without description. Text in Bomber Missions more consistently educates readers about specific events related to the pictures.

Stan Stokes' 'Buffalo Ace'

Both books have some signs of sloppiness in the writing. With the limited space, the lack of detail is excusable, but errors are embarrassing. In Bomber Missions, page 95's caption for one of the few photos in the book says the still shot is of a bomber crew, six officers and four crewmen. It appears there are four officers, actually, standing and wearing brimmed officer caps, while the six men kneeling in front are likely the enlisted, wearing their cloth overseas caps sans any officer markings. In Flying Aces, text on page 93 accompanies a Roy Grinnell painting of David McCampbell's F6F Hellcat. It claims McCampbell branded his steed "Mitzi" but Grinnell clearly painted "The Minsi" on the side of the fuselage. Grinnell is correct.

The worst offense the books commit is perhaps the most unavoidable one. Nearly all the paintings stretch across the gutter of the book, leaving ugly interruptions in these beautiful pictures. Printing the paintings large enough to capture the detail perhaps required this. Restricting the paintings to a single page, as the creators do with some of the illustrations, certainly preserves the wholeness of the art, but at a loss of impact. But making the pages or book any larger would make it unwieldy; it's already oversized.

David McCampbell poses in his F6F Hellcat called 'MINSI'

Except for the minor complaints, these are fine additions to any aviation book collection. They'll cost you a fraction of the money and space it takes to own these paintings, and are nice reads to boot. The art contained within is simply fabulous and never gets old with repeated viewing. These are excellent books for aviation fans, artists, and history lovers.


Relevance to Combat Simulations
These art books don't teach a lot of tactics, but offer something most texts don't in the form of graphical inspiration. Flip through enough paintings of the beautiful WWII warbirds in action, and you'll be primed for another spin in European Air War, Combat Flight Simulator 2, or IL-2 Sturmovik.

Both books are available via Amazon.com and the Military Book Club and are published by Friedman/Fairfax. Bomber Missions (2001) ISBN 1-58663-081-4, and Flying Aces (2000) ISBN 1-56799-815-1.

Image Sources

• Robert Bailey website
  
• Stan Stokes
  
• Robert Taylor
  
• Captain David McCampbell website