The author was born in a hamlet called Greason. When he was about eight years old, the family moved to a farm near the small town of Newville, in south-central Pennsylvania, during the Depression. Like with nearly all the people then, money was scarce as was everything else. But on the farm at that time, the once thing they had an abundance of was work. Growing up, his biggest dream was to be a pilot, which seemed, at that time, quite impossible. Then came the war and everything changed. When he reached seventeen, like millions of seventeen and eighteen-year-olds, he wanted to enter the service. The author was one of six brothers who served in the military during World War II. He entered the Army, and after infantry basic, he was transferred to the Army Air Force. Their unit was attached to the Eighth Air Force, operating in the European theater. When he returned, he received his flight instructor training, and worked in that field for many years. After eighteen years with the Air Force in several different fields, he left the government and formed his own business. He is now retired, but continues to fly commercially and for pleasure. He is a life member of the Confederate Air Force with headquarters in Midland, Texas. It is a parliamentary unit dedicated to the preservation of American combat aircrafts of World War II. It is devoted to perpetuate in memory, and in the hearts of Americans, the spirit in which these great planes were flown in the defense of our nation.
