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• v.
• 1. Careers of US naval aviators assigned numbers 1 to 2000.

This is the true story of Oliver Bullard Rasmussen, a U.S. Navy aircrewman who avoided capture after his plane crashed in Japan on July 14, 1945, leaving his pilot dead and him seriously wounded. He dodged the Japanese on Hokkaido for 68 days until he saw his first fellow American. Rasmussen healed himself, relying on his Chippewa knowledge of how to survive in the wild and staying alive by raiding farms at night. The account is drawn from tapes of interviews with Rasmussen about his ordeal and personal records and other material from his family. Beginning with Rasmussen's life as a young boy growing up on a poverty-stricken Chippewa reservation in northern Wisconsin, the book then details at length Rasmussen's almost unbelievable ordeal. Also included is information on his top-secret role in the Navy's only nuclear weapons squadron.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

With this biography of the innovator of the Thach Weave tactic, Ewing completes his trilogy about three Navy fighter pilots, Jimmie Thach, Butch O'Hare and Jimmy Flatley, who made significant changes in aerial combat tactics during World War II. Ewing follows Thach's invention of the strategy that he hoped would give his squadron a chance against t.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• In the beginning
• November 10, 1888, to February 12, 1908-Van Wert, Ohio
• And see the world
• June 1917 to May 8, 1919
• Chatham, Massachusetts, Chatham Naval Air Station
• With the NC-1 and NC-3
• May 16-17, 1919, aboard the NC-4
• May 16 and 17, 1919, aboard the NC-1
• May 16-20, 1919, aboard the NC-3
• Brits fly for honor: March 28, 1919-May 18, 1919
• British bombers complete: May 13-26, 1919
• Lisbon and beyond
• Ballooning into Canada
• Hopping down to Rio
• Exploring the Amazon Basin
• Hinton the celebrity
• Touring the country for the exchange clubs and beyond
• Epilogue.

Although Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean is considered by many to be the first step to today's space program, 91 men had crossed the Atlantic by air before him. Walter Hinton was a pilot on the first plane, a four-engine, Navy-Curtiss flying boat with a crew of six, in May 1919. Based on more than 40 hours of personal interviews with Hinton, this volume chronicles that first flight and Hinton's other remarkable adventures in aviation--which include being lost in the Canadian Arctic and believed dead, the first flight to Rio de Janeiro from New York, the first aerial exploration of the Amazon, and a nationwide promotion of aviation and airports for the Exchange Clubs in the United States. The story of Hinton uncovers a lost chapter in the history of flight in America.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Growing up in Ohio
• Flying the Navy way
• Training with Butch and into the fight
• Fighting in the Solomons
• With the Cactus Marines
• A new squadron and a new fighter
• Bunker Hill action and final kills
• Testing jets
• The radical, dangerous Cutlass
• More testing at new commands
• Back to the fleet and command
• Out to the Mediterranean then back to shore-based developments
• Senior commands
• Driving his own ship
• A senior tour
• Ending his career: time to move on.

This book is a long-awaited biography of one of the Navy's last surviving World War II aces, and one of the Navy's most respected officers of any period. Following a typical American mid-western boyhood, Whitey Feightner, like so many of his generation, was in the van of the huge group of young men thrust into World War II. Like some of his generation, Whitey had logged flight time in civilian aircraft before signing up to fly for the Navy. Upon receiving his commission and his wings of gold, he was signed to a fighter squadron and soon found himself in combat with the likes of Jimmy Flatley and Butch O'Hare, two leaders who imparted their own brand of flying skill and leadership on the young ensign. Whitey flew through many of the war's most hectic and dangerous campaigns, such as Guadalcanal and the Marianas, gaining nine official kills. There were times he should not have returned, but his own skill and positive outlook helped him make it through all the dangers. After the war, and now a member of the regular Navy, Whitey was assigned to several of the Navy's most secret and action-filled projects down at Patuxent River, Maryland. He flew planes like the F7U Cutlass, AD Skyraider, F9F Banshee and Cougar, helping to develop these legendary fighters as they joined the fleet. Whitey also was assigned to the early teams of the Blue Angels demonstration unit. He is one of only two men who flew the radical F7U Cutlass in Blue Angels colors. Returning to the fleet in command of a squadron, and later of an air group, Feightner continued to develop fighter tactics while patrolling the oceans in defense of America and its allies. In between tours at sea, Feightner served in the Pentagon dealing with all the personalities and political turmoil of the time while trying to bring Naval Aviation into the future. It wasn't easy. Working with such luminaries as Hyman Rickover and Elmo Zumwalt was not for the feint-hearted, and even Whitey did not come away unscathed. Yet, through it all, he kept the smile and affable demeanor that characterized this rare and highly skilled naval aviator. His life story could serve as a model for any young aviator to follow.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Birth of a hero
• Bessemer to Annapolis
• Go Navy: from ships to aviation
• VF-4 and the Ranger
• LSO on the Wasp
• Training Carrier Air Group 15
• Marcus and Wake Islands raids
• Marianas Operation Forager begins
• Iwo Jima
• The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot
• Ozawa's retreat and protecting Saipan
• Saipan operations and softening up Guam
• Supporting landings on Guam and Tinian
• Stalemate II: Palau, southern Philippines
• Stalemate II: Visayas, Manila strikes and Second Visayas
• Okinawa Jima, Nansei Shoto
• Battle of Formosa
• Battle of Leyte Gulf
• Last CAG-15 strikes
• Post-war naval career
• Appendix A: Aerial victories
• Appendix B: Aces of the Navy Fighting Squadron Fifteen (VF-15), December 1, 1944
• Appendix C: Medal of Honor citation of Commander David McCampbell.

This book explores the life and career of David McCampbell, the leader of the most successful naval air group in combat in WWII. An unequalled naval aviator, McCampbell shot down a total of 34 Japanese aircraft across numerous battles. Eventually awarded the Medal of Honor, he first served in the Atlantic as a carrier Landing Safety Officer, then as an air group leader in the Pacific theater. The author details McCampbell's 31-year career, revealing an incredible diversity of leadership roles and service assignments. McCampbell commanded ships, training centers, aircraft squadrons and held a variety of Navy and Defense Department senior staff positions.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Wings of Gold makes a unique contribution to the history of naval aviation. The book sets out the day-to-day experiences and reactions of a cadet who went through the aviation training program at its peak during World War II. An emphasis on training is missing in almost all books dealing with that conflict; in this book, it is the focus. In contrast with official histories, this is an account of how training did occur, rather than how it was intended to occur. It chronicles failures as well as successes, frustrations and achievements. Beginning with a comprehensive introduction to the history of naval aviation training, the authors recount the personal experiences of an individual cadet preparing for war, based on wartime letters written by cadet Rea to his family. The letters are open and candid, and they provide an insider's look at the conditions and nature of the Naval Aviation Training Program in the 1940s. Millions of Americans underwent military training during World War II, and contemporary historians and readers have begun to recognize the significance and value of primary sources related not only to combat but also to training and preparedness.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Dark storm eastward: Naval Air Station Anacostia, D.C., November 15, 1940
• The launching, 1902-25
• Naval aviation 1911-26, historical interlude
• Fighter pilot, 1926-29
• Test pilot: learning the craft, 1930-32
• Airship carriers, 1932-33
• Scouting and patrolling, 1934-40
• Naval aviation 1930-40, historical interlude
• Chief of Flight Test, 1940-41
• The desperate gamble, November 1940
• Flight test at war, 1941-43
• High noon in the Pacific, 1943-45
• The challenge, 1946
• The quest, 1946-50
• Harnessing the jets, 1946-49
• Turmoil, 1949-52
• Legacy
• Epilogue: The new guard.

Harnessing the Sky is one of the best untold stories in 100 years of naval aviation. This biography fills an important void in the history of flight test and explores the legacy of the man who has been called "the godfather of current naval aviation." Vice Admiral Frederick M. Trapnell's calculated courage advanced the frontiers of Navy test flying more than any other aviator during one of the most perilous and thrilling periods of aviation history. "Trap" entered the Navy at a time when flight testing was still in its infancy- when test pilots were more likely to be stunt men than engineers; when airplanes served an ancillary and undeveloped role in the fleet; when the airplane had not yet come into its own as a weapon of war. His vision and leadership shaped the evolution of naval aviation through its formative years and beyond. When the threat of war in 1940 raised an alarm over the Navy's deficiency in aircraft-especially fighters-Trap was brought in as head of the Flight Test Section to evaluate and direct the development of all new Navy airplanes. Trap expedited the evolution of two superb fighters that came to dominate the air war against Japan - the Corsair and Hellcat-by dramatically shortening test and development cycles for new prototypes. This remarkable feat was repeated after World War II when Trap returned as Commander of the Naval Air Test Center to lead the Navy through the challenges of transitioning to jets. Recognized for defining the operating requirements for carrier-based jet propelled aircraft, Trap personally conducted the preliminary tests of the Navy's first generation jets. Over the course of two decades (1930-1950), Trap tested virtually every naval aircraft prototype and became the first U.S. Navy pilot to fly a jet. He pioneered the philosophy and perfected many of the methods of the engineering test pilot, demanding aircraft that pushed the performance envelope up to the limits of safety in all flight regimes. He insisted on comprehensive testing of each airplane with all of its equipment in all missions, conditions and manoeuvres it would face in wartime fleet operations. These innovations advanced the tactical capability of naval air power that have kept it at the forefront of modern aviation and stand as an enduring legacy to the man who is regarded as the foremost test pilot in a century of naval aviation.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Pilot's House
• Chapter One: Learning to Fly
• Chapter Two: Frannie's Days of Yore
• Chapter Three: The Coming of the Cold War
• Chapter Four: Waiting Out Korea
• Chapter Five: Camping Out in Miami and Topsail
• Chapter Six: School Pains and Home Wars
• Chapter Seven: Trouble With the Army
• Chapter Eight: Strange Days in the Deep South
• Chapter Nine: Coming of Age in California
• Chapter Ten: Cold War Catholicism, JFK, and Cuba
• Chapter Eleven: The Discipline of
• Synchronized Swimming
• Chapter Twelve: Saint Brigit/Bardot
• Chapter Thirteen: Back to the Swamps
• Chapter Fourteen: Transition out of America
• Chapter Fifteen: Germany in the Sixties
• Chapter Sixteen: At Play in the Fields of Empire
• Chapter Seventeen: Following European Politics
• Chapter Eighteen: Making a Home in Paris
• Chapter Nineteen: New Constellations
• Chapter Twenty: An Immoveable Feast
• Chapter Twenty-One: Our Friends the Draft Resisters Chapter Twenty-Two: Show Down With Frannie
• Chapter Twenty-Three: May '68
• Chapter Twenty-Four: Show Down With Jack
• Chapter Twenty-Five: Lost Days
• Chapter Twenty-Six: Heidelberg Redux
• Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Beaker of the Warm South Chapter Twenty-Eight: The End of the Cold War
• Notes.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Fighter Pilot's Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War details author and Professor Mary Lawlor's unconventional upbringing in Cold War America. Memories of her early life-as the daughter of a Marine Corps and then Army father-reveal the personal costs of tensions that once gripped the entire world, and illustrate the ways in which bold foreign policy decisions shaped an entire generation of Americans, defining not just the ways they were raised, but who they would ultimately become. As a kid on the move she was constantly in search of something to hold on to, a longing that led her toward rebellion, to college in Paris, and to the kind of self-discovery only possible in the late 1960s. A personal narrative braided with scholarly, retrospective reflections as to what that narrative means, Fighter Pilot's Daughter zooms in on a little girl with a childhood full of instability, frustration and unanswered questions such that her struggles in growth, her struggles, her yearnings and eventual successes exemplify those of her entire generation. From California to Georgia to Germany, Lawlor's family was stationed in parts of the world that few are able to experience at so young an age, but being a child of military parents has never been easy. She neatly outlines the unique challenges an upbringing without roots presents someone struggling to come to terms with a world at war, and a home in constant turnover and turmoil. This book is for anyone seeking a finer awareness of the tolls that war takes not just on a nation, but on that nation's sons and daughters, in whose hearts and minds deeper battles continue to rage long after the soldiers have come home.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Growing up in Ohio
• Flying the Navy way
• Training with Butch and into the fight
• Fighting in the Solomons
• With the cactus Marines
• A new squadron and a new fighter
• Bunker Hill action and final kills
• Testing jets
• The radical, dangerous Cutlass
• More testing at new commands
• Back to the fleet and command
• Out to the Mediterranean then back to shore-based developments
• Senior commands
• Driving his own ship
• A senior tour
• Ending his career: time to move on.

This book is a long-awaited biography of one of the Navy's last surviving World War II aces, and one of the Navy's most respected officers of any period. Following a typical American mid-western boyhood, Whitey Feightner, like so many of his generation, was in the van of the huge group of young men thrust into World War II. Like some of his generation, Whitey had logged flight time in civilian aircraft before signing up to fly for the Navy. Upon receiving his commission and his wings of gold, he was signed to a fighter squadron and soon found himself in combat with the likes of Jimmy Flatley and Butch O'Hare, two leaders who imparted their own brand of flying skill and leadership on the young ensign. Whitey flew through many of the war's most hectic and dangerous campaigns, such as Guadalcanal and the Marianas, gaining nine official kills. There were times he should not have returned, but his own skill and positive outlook helped him make it through all the dangers. After the war, and now a member of the regular Navy, Whitey was assigned to several of the Navy's most secret and action-filled projects down at Patuxent River, Maryland. He flew planes like the F7U Cutlass, AD Skyraider, F9F Banshee and Cougar, helping to develop these legendary fighters as they joined the fleet. Whitey also was assigned to the early teams of the Blue Angels demonstration unit. He is one of only two men who flew the radical F7U Cutlass in Blue Angels colors. Returning to the fleet in command of a squadron, and later of an air group, Feightner continued to develop fighter tactics while patrolling the oceans in defense of America and its allies. In between tours at sea, Feightner served in the Pentagon dealing with all the personalities and political turmoil of the time while trying to bring Naval Aviation into the future. It wasn't easy. Working with such luminaries as Hyman Rickover and Elmo Zumwalt was not for the feint-hearted, and even Whitey did not come away unscathed. Yet, through it all, he kept the smile and affable demeanor that characterized this rare and highly skilled naval aviator. His life story could serve as a model for any young aviator to follow.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Dark storm eastward: Naval Air Station Anacostia, D.C., November 15, 1940
• The launching, 1902-1925
• Naval aviation 1911-926, historical interlude
• Fighter pilot, 1926-1929
• Test pilot: learning the craft, 1930-1932
• Airship carriers, 1932-1933
• Scouting and patrolling, 1934-1940
• Naval aviation 1930-1940, historical interlude
• Chief of Flight Test, 1940-1941
• The desperate gamble, November 1940
• Flight test at war, 1941-1943
• High noon in the Pacific, 1943-1945
• The challenge, 1946
• The quest, 1946-1950
• Harnessing the jets, 1946-1949
• Turmoil, 1949-1952
• Legacy
• Epilogue: The new guard.

Harnessing the Sky is one of the best untold stories in 100 years of naval aviation. This biography fills an important void in the history of flight test and explores the legacy of the man who has been called "the godfather of current naval aviation." Vice Admiral Frederick M. Trapnell's calculated courage advanced the frontiers of Navy test flying more than any other aviator during one of the most perilous and thrilling periods of aviation history. "Trap" entered the Navy at a time when flight testing was still in its infancy- when test pilots were more likely to be stunt men than engineers; when airplanes served an ancillary and undeveloped role in the fleet; when the airplane had not yet come into its own as a weapon of war. His vision and leadership shaped the evolution of naval aviation through its formative years and beyond. When the threat of war in 1940 raised an alarm over the Navy's deficiency in aircraft-especially fighters-Trap was brought in as head of the Flight Test Section to evaluate and direct the development of all new Navy airplanes. Trap expedited the evolution of two superb fighters that came to dominate the air war against Japan - the Corsair and Hellcat-by dramatically shortening test and development cycles for new prototypes. This remarkable feat was repeated after World War II when Trap returned as Commander of the Naval Air Test Center to lead the Navy through the challenges of transitioning to jets. Recognized for defining the operating requirements for carrier-based jet propelled aircraft, Trap personally conducted the preliminary tests of the Navy's first generation jets. Over the course of two decades (1930-1950), Trap tested virtually every naval aircraft prototype and became the first U.S. Navy pilot to fly a jet. He pioneered the philosophy and perfected many of the methods of the engineering test pilot, demanding aircraft that pushed the performance envelope up to the limits of safety in all flight regimes. He insisted on comprehensive testing of each airplane with all of its equipment in all missions, conditions and manoeuvres it would face in wartime fleet operations. These innovations advanced the tactical capability of naval air power that have kept it at the forefront of modern aviation and stand as an enduring legacy to the man who is regarded as the foremost test pilot in a century of naval aviation.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)