To Fly the Gentle Giants: The Training of U.S. WW II Glider Pilots (Hardcover)

This is the story of the training of U.S. W W II glider pilots, mainly in the U. S., but also includes some training that took place in several foreign countries. Excitement, daring adventures, and horror were not exclusive experiences of WW II pilots flying combat missions in bombers, fighters, and gliders. Rest assured, the training of glider pilots was replete with stories of nearly equivalent adventures and misadventures. Some of those were comical, but often they were frightening, frustrating, painful, and/or perplexing. Sadly, some were deadly This book is a synthesis of diverse information, and based on over 190 sources. One hundred fifty-four of those are either oral or written histories from the men and sometimes the women involved. A large number of these are unique and previously unrecorded. Most of the information has been collected by the author between 1981 and 2004. Almost immediately it became a labor of love and I became, in spirit, a "family" member with these fine men and women.