This book contains inspirational messages coming from the grassroots of a life well lived. It holds up the possibility of achievement by anyone, regardless of their beginning. Bill Garner was a painfully naïve country kid. He lacked career guidance but had an abundance of ambition. He pursued, with consuming vigor, a vision of what his life might be and came to realize his vision during a long life of successful endeavors. This is a how to guide to success in challenging times. Bill shares many lessons he learned along the way and offers a personal philosophy of life that others might adopt for their own lifelong benefit. He is a gifted writer. You will gallop with him through terrifying pony rides that end in no imaginable measure of glory; rather, in huge crushing disappointments. You will be transported to the complex cockpit of a Mach 2 fighter aircraft as you accompany him on harrowing missions in the black of night and driving rain during the Monsoon Season of Southeast Asia. Soaring tens of thousands of feet above the hostile terrain of North Vietnam and Laos, you will ride through in-flight refueling while connected perilously to a KC-135 flying gas station, soon thereafter to be shot at – and too often hit – by some of the most accurate and deadly antiaircraft artillery gunners the world has ever known. Following combat, he advanced through several assignments in Europe before attending the Air War College, en route to the Pentagon, his last assignment. He retired from the Air Force after 26 years of active duty. Bill shares his experiences in the two later careers of health services management and real estate. You will witness his innovative successes as he builds new and diversified programs and makes existing ones better.

Using narrative accounts and new insights this book catalogues the dramatic and first-hand oral testimonies of the US Army Air Corps' bomber crews of the newly created Eighth Air Force that became stationed in East Anglia in 1942. ??It begins with shock of the unannounced Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and how it affected the young men who were destined to fly and fight in Europe. American troops, or GIs as they were known because of their own derisive term of 'General Issue', began arriving in war-weary Britain in the months immediately after Pearl Harbor. Bomber and fighter groups made an especial impact. The young Americans with their well-cut uniforms, new accents and money, created a colourful heroic chapter in the lives of the British people that is still remembered today. The Americans and the villagers and townsfolk of East Anglia shared a close attachment that only wartime can create. England between 1942-45 was a battle front. The civilians were all involved in the war effort - as shipyard and factory workers, Red Cross and Land Army, farmers and firemen. Above all they were stubborn, determined fighters who had already endured more than three years of war. Into these lives came the sights and sounds - particularly the jargon - of the Americans, unprepared for the difficulties of flying in Britain's and Northern Europe's unpredictable and difficult weather. It is the story of the American's first encounters with the Luftwaffe, heavy Nazi air defences and the wartime strictures that Britain had already endured for three years. These are their memories.

Story of the early years of the U.S. Eighth Air Force Dramatic firsthand descriptions of World War II in the air The U.S.'s first encounters with the Luftwaffe and Nazi air defenses

Fittingly named for a wild horse, this fighter became widely recognized for its power and beauty. It was a key element in Allied air superiority in Europe during WWII, destroying 9,081 enemy aircraft, and with similar results in the Korean War. Striking photos and the personal stories of the men who flew it help to tell the story of this superior aircraft. Full color photos of restored P-51s. Revised and updated

THROUGH POETRY, Jane Gilgun tells the story of one woman's life. Born in coastal Rhode Island, USA, Jane galloped Sadie Cummings, a race horse, on Narragansett Beach, tramped through the Spring Woods, and found beauty, mystery, and hurt in the people and events in her life. She shows how the themes of childhood weave themselves into her life as a horsewoman, a nature enthusiast, a woman in love, a social worker, a violence researcher, and a seeker of the spiritual. Written in imagist, lyric, and narrative styles, these poems convey the rhythms of a life fully lived--the sharp, sometimes painful intrusions of beauty, the transcendence of erotic love, the fears and intrigue of bodily changes, the horror of violence, and the warmth and comfort of everyday life.

A son's search for his father and the legacy of America's first fighter pilots.