In our lives, there are events that occur that change our lives forever, such as being drafted or getting married or having children. Sometimes even killing. Events that cant be changed or taken back. Nice Day for Flyin is a story of one young boy, Ian McIntyre, who upon being drafted during the later part of the Vietnam War, his first real turning point, is forced to leave a life and future he has known and planned for all his short life. This is a story of lost innocence, betrayal, lost love, and, death. It is also a story of found love and life, friendship, and trust. This is a story based individual events,in many ways on my experiences and those of others I have served with, while other parts of the story are just plain and simple fabrication. The characters are composites of many people, and the events are based on experiences and war stories of many people but have been changed in some ways. This is a story of how it might have been, not how it really was or is now. This is not a history lesson; it is a story and nothing more. The language in this work is, at times, rough as it should be. Real life is not G-rated. I started this book as a retelling of my own experience in Vietnam and after I returned; but it quickly turned into a long, technical, detail-filled and boring history, which I promptly deleted. Instead I took events and stories as separate entities and worked them into a piece of fiction, a story of how it could have been or perhaps how I would have liked it to have been. If you want a history lesson, read Stanley Karnows Vietnam:A History. If you want to laugh, cry, and be entertained, then give Nice Day for Flyin a read.

From Golden Valley Aero News""December 1982 Joseph B. Conner Joe writes "Conner's Corner" every month. He has been writing for Livermore Valley Airmen's Association's newsletter for several years, and his stories are now included in Golden Valley Aero News. Joe works for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and commutes""by car""from Tracy, California. In Joe's stories, we learn about Fidelia, the Varga he uses when he cruises around the valley on his excursions. Fidelia is not just any Varga. To Joe, she is a real she, an airplane with soul and personality. Reading Joe's stories, you get this feeling that he is talking about a real live being. "Conner's Corner" describes real events, things that have happened to Joe on his flights. They are cute stories so well told by Joe in his easygoing, "talking" style. Many of them have an undertone of philosophy that adds a pleasant color to the events Joe is describing. He writes in such a manner that the reader actually gets the feeling of being the pilot or passenger. Most enjoyable reading.

A poetic and nuanced exploration of the human experience of flight that reminds us of the full imaginative weight of our most ordinary journeys—and reawakens our capacity to be amazed. The twenty-first century has relegated airplane flight—a once remarkable feat of human ingenuity—to the realm of the mundane. Mark Vanhoenacker, a 747 pilot who left academia and a career in the business world to pursue his childhood dream of flight, asks us to reimagine what we—both as pilots and as passengers—are actually doing when we enter the world between departure and discovery. In a seamless fusion of history, politics, geography, meteorology, ecology, family, and physics, Vanhoenacker vaults across geographical and cultural boundaries; above mountains, oceans, and deserts; through snow, wind, and rain, renewing a simultaneously humbling and almost superhuman activity that affords us unparalleled perspectives on the planet we inhabit and the communities we form.

This book is fictional comedy about two angels that receive a message from God, telling them that they have to return to Earth. The older angel is wiser and more experienced and is sent to help his partner with supervision and companionship through their ordeal. In their journey to Earth they travel to different cities in search of the younger angels people contacts that he has to get reacquainted with. One problem is how to recognize these same people after years past. If he finds his contacts he has to decide how to go about mending past circumstances and occurrences for the mischievous activities he played on people when he was alive and on Earth. In their travels to Earth the younger angel recalls people, and situations and he has to make amends in order to become a full-fledged angel. He has a series of flashbacks, and recollections and he tries to overcome his past, and make it good in the present time, after he arrives back on Earth.

Until now, no book has covered all of Cold War air combat in the words of the men who waged it. In I Always Wanted to Fly, retired United States Air Force Colonel Wolfgang W. E. Samuel has gathered first-person memories from heroes of the cockpits and airstrips. Battling in dogfights when jets were novelties, saving lives in grueling airlifts, or flying dangerous reconnaissance missions deep into Soviet and Chinese airspace, these flyers waged America's longest and most secretively conducted air war. Many of the pilots Samuel interviewed invoke the same sentiment when asked why they risked their lives in the air—“I always wanted to fly.” While young, they were inspired by barnstormers, by World War I fighter legends, by the legendary Charles Lindbergh, and often just by seeing airplanes flying overhead. With the advent of World War II, many of these dreamers found themselves in cockpits soon after high school. Of those who survived World War II, many chose to continue following their dream, flying the Berlin Airlift, stopping the North Korean army during the “forgotten war” in Korea, and fighting in the Vietnam War. Told in personal narratives and reminiscences, I Always Wanted to Fly renders views from pilots' seats and flight decks during every air combat flashpoint from 1945–1968. Drawn from long exposure to the immense stress of warfare, the stories these warriors share are both heroic and historic. The author, a veteran of many secret reconnaissance missions, evokes individuals and scenes with authority and grace. He provides clear, concise historical context for each airman's memories. In I Always Wanted to Fly he has produced both a thrilling and inspirational acknowledgment of personal heroism and a valuable addition to our documentation of the Cold War.