Spread your wings and explore 60+ years of aviation history told by third generation pilot, Lt. Col. Scott R. Weaver. An unique story never told before about his grand father, flight instructor, Leo Purinton and his family history, starting in World War II, continuing through Vietnam and ending in the Gulf War. In 1998, Tom Brokaw used the phrase, ” The Greatest Generation" when he wrote his book by the same title. Some thought it was a catchy marketing phrase. Read my story, and I think you'll agree, that this generation was indeed The Greatest Generation. Thunderbird Field is part of America’s storied aviation history. It was considered a training base that was “steeped in multicultural tradition” with student pilots from America, Canada, Britain, Argentina and China.In late 1930's, another World War in Europe was inevitable. The German Air Force had amassed over 20,000 pilots and trained the largest reserve of pilots ever in the history of mankind. Simultaneously, Japanese Army Air Service was wrecking havoc throughout Asia, mainly China.It was in the late 1940's that the leadership of the United States and the US Army Air Corps, General "Hap" Arnold, saw the desperate need for skilled aviators. With only a handshake between General Arnold and Leland Hayward and JackConnelly, Southwest Airway founders, planned for the nation's first civilian flight training center in Phoenix, Arizona.

"[P]rovides a unique year-by-year overview of the fascinating story of the Tuskegee Airmen, embracing important events in the formation of the first military training for black pilots in United States history, the phases of their training at various air fields in Tuskegee and elsewhere, their continued training at other bases around the U.S., and their deployment overseas, first to North Africa and then to Sicily and Italy."--Provided by publisher.

Brig Gen Michael C. McCarthy wrote this World War II memoir from his perspective as a fighter pilot who flew two years with one squadron first in the P-40 then P-47. During the war, he progressed to major and acting squadron commander. He began training after Pearl Harbor in the Army Aviation Cadet program and continued with P-40 training in Florida. With some of his classmates, he traveled through equatorial Africa ferrying P-40s to Cairo and Cape Bon to join the 57th Fighter Group. This three-part story, set primarily in Italy, captures fears, uncertainties, and accomplishments of ordinary Americans involved in extraordinary events.

Baseball and flying. Two great passions. Many pilots have also been great baseball players and vice versa. For retired USAF fighter pilot Lt. Col. Scott Weaver, flying became the gateway to discovering a world of baseball and standout players in the UK, Argentina, Australia, and across the globe. In this book, you will:•Learn that they really do have baseball in France.•Find out how to organize an ex-pat team in Argentina.•Learn how to get your dream baseball job overseas. Discover how to realize your Argentinian baseball dream by studying abroad.•Learn how to travel outside your comfort zone. What do flying and baseball have in common? “The Pilot and the Pitcher” will tell you.•Emotional intelligence•How to set goals•Mental focus•Being cool under pressure.Whether a fighter pilot, coach, or business executive, the people you work with will influence the success of your mission, team, or endeavor. The qualities I’ve noted above are the ones I believe influence a successful mindset and help make a better wingman. Whether I’m looking for a partner, co-pilot, teammate, or colleague who will help guide my mission to a successful end, these are the qualities I seek. With time and growth comes change. So be the leader and mentor our wingman with the qualities, values, and mindset to move our squadron, team, business, or organization forward. So enjoy my personal story and the stories of my worldwide contributors, about family and finding your passion.

The Secret Team, L. Fletcher Prouty's CIA exposé, was first published in the 1970s, but virtually all copies of the book disappeared upon distribution, purchased en masse by shady "private buyers." Certainly Prouty's amazing allegations—that the U-2 Crisis of 1960 was fixed to sabotage Eisenhower-Khrushchev talks, and that President Kennedy was assassinated to keep the U.S., and its defense budget, in Vietnam—cannot have pleased the CIA. Though suppressed (until now), The Secret Team was an important influence for Oliver Stone's Academy Award-winning film JFK and countless other works on U.S. government conspiracies, and it raises the same crucial question today that it did on its first appearance: who, in fact, is in control of the United States and the world?