Wings of Love and War

The shattering attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 unified America, as an entire generation was caught up in patriotic fervor. Millions of young men volunteered for the Military, ready to fight not only the Japanese, but also Hitler’s Germany. This is a story based on the real life of one of those men. Born in Southern California during the Roaring Twenties and growing up in the Great Depression, he comes of age in war. It is also about those whose lives, in touching his, generate all the elements of the classics: Ambition, Adventure, Love, Betrayal, Desperation, Courage, and Tragedy. In the adventure of a lifetime, he is thrust into the cauldron of war. Intensive training is followed by the harrowing experiences of deadly bombing missions over Nazi Germany. Despite the demands of his duties, romance flourishes in wartime London, where he finds the woman of his dreams. A nighttime bombing raid on his base threatens the B-17’s and personnel of his 390th Bombardment Group. He is then caught up in the events that follow, creating a gripping picture of the crescendo of the air war that crippled much of Germany’s industry, leading to the final defeat of the Nazi war machine.

The shattering attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 unified America, as an entire generation was caught up in patriotic fervor. Millions of young men volunteered for the Military, ready to fight not only the Japanese, but also Hitler’s Germany. This is a story based on the real life of one of those men. Born in Southern California during the Roaring Twenties and growing up in the Great Depression, he comes of age in war. It is also about those whose lives, in touching his, generate all the elements of the classics: Ambition, Adventure, Love, Betrayal, Desperation, Courage, and Tragedy. In the adventure of a lifetime, he is thrust into the cauldron of war. Intensive training is followed by the harrowing experiences of deadly bombing missions over Nazi Germany. Despite the demands of his duties, romance flourishes in wartime London, where he finds the woman of his dreams. A nighttime bombing raid on his base threatens the B-17’s and personnel of his 390th Bombardment Group. He is then caught up in the events that follow, creating a gripping picture of the crescendo of the air war that crippled much of Germany’s industry, leading to the final defeat of the Nazi war machine.

Born in Los Angeles in 1926, the author is a WWII Army air Force veteran, whose pilot training program, in Texas and Oklahoma was disbanded in the later stages of the conflict. Given the option, the medical corps was chosen, serving in various capacities at the AAF Base Hospital at Truax Field, in Madison, Wisconsin. Soon after the victory over Japan, and an honorable discharge, returning to Los Angeles, he selected Medicine as a profession, and entered USC on the GI Bill in 1946. Medical School was at the University of Chicago, followed by an Internship and then Residency in Neurosurgery at UCLA. Following completion of the residency at the end of 1960, for a year and a half he served as full-time Instructor at the University of Florida, where he was able to finish medical papers begun at UCLA. Returning to California with his growing family, San Francisco was selected as the place to practice, and Sausalito, just across the Golden Gate the family residence. Things became so busy, that aside from publishing a couple more papers in medical journals, only three short stories, still unpublished, and based on medical experiences, could be written. The author retired from operative neurosurgery in 1970, and while still conducting an office practice, began to have more time in which to write. Some of that time was spent in the creation of his first novel, Wings of Love and War, a story of the life of his oldest brother, he had always felt contained all the elements of the classics. Currently, the author has completed a second novel, three more short stories, and a Juvenile Novella, along with continuing his office practice in San Francisco, and managing, with his wife, Eivor, the family vineyard in northern Sonoma County, north of Healdsburg, California.