The author is the daughter of Major Edward Greer a retired fighter pilot. The result is a book filled with short stories of her father’s career in the USAF. She calls him Pop and doesn’t try to hide her admiration for her wonderful father who’s stories does not match with the title of the book as I never did read a paragraph referring to that dangerous situation. Despite that the stories have a light accent and descriptions of social happenings fill an important part of the book.
Major Greer has a long career flying a lot of different types (an impressive listing in the end of the book) and it all starts in the 50 ties were fighter jets just starting their way up. Jets he flew like the Starfire, the Scorpion and the Sabre are icons of that period. By the end of his career as a pilot, Pop had flown everything from an F-89 and F-101 to a B-25 and B-47—over 39 different airplanes of which I’m aware.
Clearly his daughter translated her Pop’s memories in colourful flying stories that creates sometimes a relaxed atmosphere which is certainly not the case when you are stationed per example in Alaska or airbases near the possible frontline. But that makes the book distinctive.
The female touch in major Greers adventures makes it also nice reading for the other gender. In short don’t expect a lot of technicalities but a light hearted reflexion of major Greers stories as told around the kitchen table. It contains 105 pages. He’s on the booshelf and by the way a ‘artsy lay out!
Buy?! Visit www.NeverFlyABrokenPlane.com for details and links to purchase the paperback and e-book on Lulu. FYI: there are three stories which MIGHT be questionable for an under 12 audience. The stories reflect language of the time and are sometimes “boys being boys” from the 1950s and 1960s. I’ve seen PG-13 movies that are far worse than this book.
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