This book recounts the history of Raymond A. Firmani – from his humble beginnings as the son of poor Italian immigrants, to earning his wings as a B-17 pilot, completing twenty-five bombing missions and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, then on to participating fully in family life and a successful career in the aftermath of the war. A citizen airman of WWII, Ray risked his life every time he flew a combat mission. His experience during the war was unique, but it also has much in com...

This book recounts the history of Raymond A. Firmani – from his humble beginnings as the son of poor Italian immigrants, to earning his wings as a B-17 pilot, completing twenty-five bombing missions and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, then on to participating fully in family life and a successful career in the aftermath of the war. A citizen airman of WWII, Ray risked his life every time he flew a combat mission. His experience during the war was unique, but it also has much in com...

Second lieutenant Dick Curtis arrived in Italy in May 1944–twenty years old and part of a shipment of P-51 Mustang fighter pilots so desperately needed that they were rushed into combat with less than thirty hours of flight time in their new high-performance aircraft.Six of the twelve pilots assigned to the 52nd Fighter Group were shot down in the first two weeks. By his ninth mission, Curtis was the only one still flying. A maverick, he barely escaped court-martial with his high-f...

A COMBAT ACE’S ACCOUNT OF PILOTING THE GREATEST SINGLE-SEAT FIGHTER IN WORLD WAR IIWorld War II marked the end of an era; fighter pilots still flew by the seat of their pants, and George Loving recaptures the exhilarating world of aerial combat in all its stark terror and fiery glory. His first fighter was the famed Spitfire, hero of the Battle of Britain. By 1943, however, it was obsolescent and did not match up well against the first-line German Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. Ye...

Fighter Pilot is the memoir of legendary ace American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force, Robin Olds.Robin Olds was a larger-than-life hero with a towering personality. A graduate of West Point and an inductee in the National College Football Hall of Fame for his All-American performance for Army, Olds was one of the toughest college football players at the time. In WWII, Olds quickly became a top fighter pilot and squadron commander b...

MUSTANG ACE: Memoirs of a P-51 Fighter Pilot by Robert J. Goebel + Easygoing and quick to learn, young Bob Goebel worked his way steadily through the phases of military flight training, and found in himself an aptitude for flight. Following months of rigorous operational flying in Panama, Goebel and his young companions found themselves in North Africa in the spring of 1944 with orders to the 31st Fighter Group in Italy. Just as the novices were about to join, the 31st traded its British-m...

The Hawker Typhoon despite numerous technical flaws, was the finest ground support aircraft in Europe during World War II. At the same time the stories of the brave men who flew this difficult aircraft remain untold and unacknowledged. From his enlistment in Toronto through the final flights over Germany, this is the memoir of Jack Hilton, an RCAF fighter pilot, who successfully flew this challenging aircraft.

After spending a year in Germany as a security guard with the 50th Ordnance Company, Curtis Gay went to Viet Nam as a Private First Class. Six months later he was a Sergeant in the 25th Infantry Division and experienced some of the most intense fighting of the war. This book is his story.Curtis spent a year as a Drill Sergeant at Fort Dix, New Jersey before leaving the Army in 1968. After a long career in the electrical industry, he is retired and lives in Durham, North Carolina wi...

Even as a boy growing up amid the green hills of rural Pennsylvania, Robert W. Black knew he was destined to become a Ranger. With their three-hundred-year history of peerless courage and independence of spirit, Rangers are a uniquely American brand of soldier, one foot in the military, one in the wilderness—and that is what fired Black’s imagination. In this searing, inspiring memoir, Black recounts how he devoted himself, body and soul, to his proud service as an elite U. S. Army Ranger ...

Experience the pain, the pride, and the triumph of the Marine CorpsAll the members of 1st Lt. James J. Kirschke’s mortar platoon and then rifle platoon knew the stakes: the Marines are America’s military elite, expected to train harder, fight longer, sacrifice more. Kirschke led by example in the hotly contested zone just south of the DMZ and in the dangerous AnHoa region southwest of DaNang. There Kirschke’s units, with resources stretched to the limit, s...

The author in flight gear after photo twelfth mission – second Air Medal (age nineteen)He still wears lucky Air Cadet ring!Hutch's third book contains short stories of boys on B-17 Flying Fortress crews in deadly missions with the Eighth Air Force in World War II and stories of his own teenage combat experiences as radio/gunner on twenty missions with the Mighty Eighth.Teenagers enlisted or were drafted, trained and went into combat before they could legally vote or ...

**WWIII explodes in this electrifying debut military thriller in the tradition of Red Storm Rising and *The Third World War.“Delta-Two, I’ve got tanks through the wire! They’re everywhere!”***World War III explodes in seconds when a resurgent Russian Empire launches a deadly armored thrust into the heart of Germany. With a powerful blizzard providing cover, Russian tanks thunder down the autobahns while undercover Spetsnaz teams strike at vulnerable command points....