The clock is ticking for me these days. I have only a few days left here in Independence before I begin the ultimate road trip, first to Ohio, then to Texas where I'll embed with an Oregon Guard unit preparing for combat operations in Afghanistan. I'll be traveling with them to Afghanistan, writing their stories for the rest of the summer, and most of my blog posts starting in July will chronicle what I see these remarkable men and women accomplish.
But first, I have one final deadline to meet. July 1st I am to deliver a book called "Bombs Away!" that is sort of a companion to the Bulge book I wrote last year. Bombs Away is the culmination of a long held dream of mine that started when I was a kid in Saratoga.
My dad is an exceptional model builder--a true artist with plastic, file, glue and paint. His models have earned national awards at IPMS conventions. As a kid, his den contained all his works of art in glass-encased cabinets. This was strictly off limits for me, which meant that I HAD to get in there to stare at those incredible aircraft models. In those cabinets stood rows of Mustangs, Lightnings, Messerschmitts and Hurricanes.
He also had an incredible aviation library. He arrayed his books with almost military precision, which meant every time I snagged one to read it, he would notice. I never got the hang of putting them back exactly as he had them arranged, so I always got caught with his forbidden fruit. Of course, all this fostered an intense love of aviation history in me and helped launch me on the path I've taken since leaving Dad's house in 1986.
I always wanted to write on the air war in Europe so that someday, one of those books on Dad's shelf would be mine. Earlier this spring, my friend Richard Kane gave me that opportunity. And so, in these waning days of my pre-Afghanistan life, I will be singularly focused on finishing this culmination of decades of dreaming. Bomb's Away will be a photographic history of the strategic bombing campaign in Europe accompanied by about 45,000 words of text.
What a joy. Back in the 90's, I interviewed hundreds of WWII aviators, and now I've been given the opportunity to pay homage to their experiences with images from the period and my words. The writing business comes freighted with all sorts of ups and downs, lean times and flush ones, but in the grand scheme of my life, this book will be one from the heart that first came to love aviation as a result of those stolen moments in my father's den. There is no way to express such gratitude for an opportunity like this one, except to pour every ounce of passion I have onto each page. In that passion, I'll be able to pay homage to my own past, as well as to the veterans of that air war I came to call friends during the last years of their lives as I came of age as a writer and historian twenty years ago.
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