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Echoes of eagles : a son's search for his father and the legacy of America's first fighter pilots / Charles Woolley with Bill Crawford.
LIBRA D606 .W65 2003
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Woolley, Charles.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Woolley, Charles H., -1962.
- Woolley, Charles H.
- Fighter pilots--United States--Biography.
- Fighter pilots.
- United States.
- World War, 1914-1918--Aerial operations, American.
- World War, 1914-1918.
- World War, 1914-1918--Campaigns--France.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- 307 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Dutton, [2003]
- Summary:
- Published to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic first flight and the birth of aviation, Echoes of Eagles is a rousing chronicle of American air combat during the First World War. In 1917, Charles H. Woolley, the author's father, enlisted in and trained as a pilot with the newly created U.S. Air Service. He and his fellow pilots of the 94th, 95th, and 49th Aero Squadrons -- including Teddy Roosevelt's youngest son, Quentin, and Sumner Sewall, a future governor of Maine -- flew at 20,000 feet in open-cockpit French biplanes with no oxygen, no parachutes, and no radios. Death was their constant companion. This extraordinary book takes readers into the cockpits of these fragile fighter aircraft and into the souls of the men who fought for their country in a new environment -- the air. It is also the story of their lives on the ground: the grit of muddy airfields and the frustration of fickle airplanes, balanced by the glamour, the women, and the champagne of Paris. From tales of dogfighting with German aces to strafing enemy trenches, Echoes of Eagles describes the risks and the dangers of flight, feats of incredible heroism and acts of stunning cowardice, and the camaraderie among men dedicated to a common goal. Based on diaries and letters and never-before-published interviews with the heroes themselves, and featuring amazing photographs, this unforgettable account of America's first fighter pilots is also a son's stirring tribute to his father.
- Contents:
- Chapter 1. In the Beginning 1
- Chapter 2. Some Family History 10
- Chapter 3. Uniforms Without Rank 22
- Chapter 4. Fledglings Gather 34
- Chapter 5. Honing Their Skills 54
- Chapter 6. First to the Front 69
- Chapter 7. Guns, Champagne, and Spies 83
- Chapter 8. Losses, Victories, and a Mule 94
- Chapter 9. Tempered in Battle 113
- Chapter 10. Newcomers in Their Midst 125
- Chapter 11. A Death in the Family 140
- Chapter 12. From Joy to Despair 155
- Chapter 13. Flight Commander 170
- Chapter 14. All-American Offensive 186
- Chapter 15. The Final Push 203
- Chapter 16. The Meuse-Argonne with the Wolf Pack 220
- Chapter 17. Costly Victory 233
- Chapter 18. Post-War Progress 244
- Chapter 19. Boom, Bust, and Back to the Air 257
- Chapter 20. Full Circle 266
- Descriptions and Diagrams of Aerial Maneuvers 275.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [289]-294) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0525947574
- OCLC:
- 51944306
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