South Plains Army Airfield in Lubbock, Texas, was a major training base for US Army Air Force glider pilots during World War II. Approximately 80 percent of the roughly 6,000 pilots trained to fly the combat cargo glider received their advanced training and were awarded their G Wings at SPAAF, as it was known. The base was conceived, built, used, and then closed in a short five-year period during World War II. Today, little remains to remind one of the feverish and important military training program that once took place on the flat, featureless South Plains of Texas. During World War II, American military strategy and tactics included a significant airborne component. Major invasions, such as D-Day at Normandy, were preceded by huge aerial fleets carrying paratroopers and their equipment. These airborne invasion fleets sometimes exceeded well over 1,000 Allied gliders. The American airborne forces depended upon an ungainly looking aircraft, the CG-4A glider, to carry the vehicles, munitions, and reinforcements needed to survive. The pilots who flew them learned their trade at South Plains Army Airfield.

South Plains Army Airfield in Lubbock, Texas, was a major training base for US Army Air Force glider pilots during World War II. Approximately 80 percent of the roughly 6,000 pilots trained to fly the combat cargo glider received their advanced training and were awarded their "G" Wings at SPAAF, as it was known. The base was conceived, built, used, and then closed in a short five-year period during World War II. Today, little remains to remind one of the feverish and important military training program that once took place on the flat, featureless South Plains of Texas. During World War II, American military strategy and tactics included a significant airborne component. Major invasions, such as D-Day at Normandy, were preceded by huge aerial fleets carrying paratroopers and their equipment. These airborne invasion fleets sometimes exceeded well over 1,000 Allied gliders. The American airborne forces depended upon an ungainly looking aircraft, the CG-4A glider, to carry the vehicles, munitions, and reinforcements needed to survive. The pilots who flew them learned their trade at South Plains Army Airfield.

Every veteran has a story to tell--often ones they have not told their own families. But as one vet in this collection of original interviews succinctly said of his combat experiences: "Some things are better left unsaid." Documenting recollections from survivors of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and other conflicts--all residents of the Texas Panhandle--this book presents narratives from men and women whose young lives, for good or ill, were defined by their participation in warfare in service to their country.

Out on the Texas Plains, wrangling with history resembles taking in the sunset--a stampede of splendor and shadow all at once. Roam an Ohio-sized patch of prairie and take stock of the heroic tasks and moral dilemmas facing the unforgettable characters who called West Texas home. Ben Hogan sinks a putt with the focus of the Clovis man who hunted mammoth in the same spot thousands of years before. Lubbock's largest lawsuit runs its interminable course. And a starving Roy Rogers makes a quick meal of jackrabbit on the Llano Estacado. Chuck Lanehart gathers statesmen and journalists, outlaws and entertainers, in these profiles of the Texas Plains.

Longhorn Hoops documents the history of basketball at the University of Texas. For men's basketball, Richard Pennington goes season by season, describing every game the Longhorns have ever played from 1906 to 1998. He does the same for women's basketball, except for the first two chapters, which cover longer spans of time leading up to the establishment of basketball as a varsity sport for women in 1974. Pennington demonstrates that Texas basketball, while always secondary to King Football, actually has a long and colorful history. Beside stories of games won or lost, points scored, and rebounds collected, Pennington recalls the orange-and-white stars of yesteryear--from Clyde Littlefield to Reggie Freeman--and brings the greatest teams to life, including the unbeaten Steers of 1924, the Final Four team of 1947, Harold Bradley's 1963 team, Abe Lemons' 1978 NIT champions, and Tom Penders' 1990 Longhorns. Perhaps the most interesting story in Longhorn Hoops is how Anna Hiss, director of women's physical education at Texas from 1921 to 1957, helped lead a nationwide movement against intercollegiate competition for women, which shut down UT women's basketball for several decades and and made progress in the 1960s and 1970s much more difficult. Some determined co-eds got it going again, and, with the energy and direction of women's athletic director Donna Lopiano and coach Jody Conradt (whose teams have won more than 700 games), the Longhorns built a powerhouse program that reached its apex with an undefeated team in 1986, winning the NCAA championship with the heroics of freshman star Clarissa Davis. Basketball, as Pennington notes in his preface, is the most beautiful sport ofall, and its history at the University of Texas has now been told. This comprehensive book features a foreword by Dr. Denton Cooley, the world-famous heart surgeon who helped the Longhorns win an SWC title in 1939.

Texans in World War II offers an informative look at the challenges and changes faced by Texans on the home front during the Second World War. This collection of essays by leading scholars of Texas history covers topics from the African American and Tejano experience to organized labor, from the expanding opportunities for women to the importance of oil and agriculture. Texans in World War II makes local the frequently studied social history of wartime, bringing it home to Texas. An eye-opening read for Texans eager to learn more about this defining era in their state’s history, this book will also prove deeply informative for scholars, students, and general readers seeking detailed, definitive information about World War II and its implications for daily life, economic growth, and social and political change in the Lone Star State.