novel - Sci-fi story where a pilot transfers his consciousness into his ship and explores the territory of an "enemy" alien race

I don't remember much about the details of the story, but basically a military pilot agrees to transfer his consciousness into his spaceship (this is proposed to him as a top-secret military project), therefore making his spaceship his new "body". Initially he comments on how much easier it is to maneuver the ship, since he no longer has to worry about how his human body would react to the force of the maneuvers and because the response to his thoughts is instantaneous.

In the story humanity has been at war with an alien race for an extended amount of time, and part of the reason that this project is proposed is because humanity needs a way to explore alien territory. The guy eventually meets a weird "turtle-like" creature, which I think was a subjugated, unintelligent creature serving the initial, antagonistic race. I think he either learns to move into this creature's mind, or somehow allows this creature to carry him, and this allows him to explore the alien homeworld. He starts making observations about how aliens live and communicate...

That's all I remember about the book. I read this maybe some 15 years ago, and I think it must have been either a late 80s or early 90s book. Anybody got any ideas on what it is?

Answer

I beleive the book you are referring to is called "The Forever Man" by Gordon R. Dickson.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/280735.The_Forever_Man

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