In this book, the story of a top-secret military operation at the heart of U.S. Air Force Cold War training and planning is told for the first time. "Red Eagles" reveals how, beginning in the early 1950s, the U.S. government set about covertly acquiring Soviet aircraft for testing and evaluation--a program that, over the next four decades, developed into specialist units at two Air Force bases, and involved Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots in top-secret "top gun" fighter training. Drawing on interviews with pilots in the program, Davies conveys the drama of the American military's first exposure to the Soviets' MiG jet fighters, and the perils--sometimes fatal--of testing U.S. fighters, and flying skills, against them.