Launched in 1939, the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was one of the largest government-sponsored vocational education programs of its time. In To Fill the Skies with Pilots, Dominick A. Pisano explores the successes and failures of the program, from its conception as a hybrid civilian-military mandate in peacetime, through the war years, and into the immediate postwar period. As originally conceived, the CPTP would serve both war-preparedness goals and New Deal economic ends. Using the facilities of colleges, universities, and commercial flying schools, the CPTP was designed to provide a pool of civilian pilots for military service in the event of war. The program also sought to give an economic boost to the light-plane industry and the network of small airports and support services associated with civilian aviation. As Pisano demonstrates, the CPTP's multiple objectives ultimately contributed to its demise. Although the program did train tens of thousands of pilots who later flew during the war (mostly in noncombat missions), military leaders faulted the project for not being more in line with specific recruitment and training needs. After attempting to adjust to these needs, the CPTP then faced a difficult and ultimately unsuccessful transition back to civilian purposes in the postwar era. By charting the history of the CPTP, Pisano sheds new light on the politics of aviation during these pivotal years as well as on civil-military relations and New Deal policy making.

I asked for action, and I'm really getting it. We had our toughest mission to-date, yesterday. It was a bombing-strafing job on destroyers, and they really threw up the fireworks. It gives you a funny feeling to see all the ack-ack coming and still have to keep on going in. It is a feeling of acute anticipation and mild curiosity-the latter as regards whether it is your turn to get hit. I like combat pretty well. I guess it is a natural desire to like destruction. If you've ever seen six streams of tracers hosing into a target, I think you'd know what I mean. I've flown an awful lot lately (9 hours a day), and hope I can keep it up. However, some replacements came in today, so they will probably ease up a little on the rest of us. I'd rather keep up the steady flying, though. P. S. Guess you've been praying for me quite a bit. At any rate, someone has. Keep it up. There really are no atheists here. Book jacket.

This WWII combat history offers a detailed chronicle and analysis of an RAF Pathfinder Squadron’s ill-fated operation over Cologne. On December 23rd, 1944, an elite squadron of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command engaged in a courageous yet tragic daylight raid on the Gremberg railway yards in Cologne, Germany. One of the war’s most significant raids, it is scarcely mentioned in history books. Yet it was an operation in which its leader won the Victoria Cross, and a future VC fought a similarly heroic battle. It was also a harrowing ordeal in which ordinary men lost their lives doing extraordinary things. In Heroic Endeavour, aviation historian Sean Feast tells the story of this fateful raid from two different perspectives. In the first part, he presents a gripping narrative recreation of the events as they unfolded. In the second, he shares retrospective interviews with survivors from both sides, as well as an analysis of what went wrong and why.