High honor

the long version

In this collection of thoughtful reminiscences, 26 men and two women look back on their WW II experiences in military aviation and briefly review their subsequent careers. Former pilots have their say, along with a bombardier, a ball-turret gunner, a navigator, a carrier landing-signals officer, a flight surgeon and a crew chief. Many of the participants in this oral history project remained in aviation after the war, some as pilots on active duty in Korea and Vietnam, others as test pilots, aerospace engineers, airline mechanics. Melodrama has a low priority here; most of these veterans are more interested in recalling the good times than the bad, their fascination with airplanes and their personal sense of fulfillment at having taken part in the air war.