Spitfire

In a voice both timeless and distinctly greatest generational, Parke F. Smith writes about being the last US  pilot accepted into the ranks of the RAF via their training exchange  program at War Eagle Field, Los Angeles. After completing their course, he sailed to England on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth, swore allegiance to the King, and was offered a coveted spot training as a fighter pilot. From 1942 to 1946, Smith flew 129  missions in North Africa, Italy, and over the North Sea, before returning home. Amazingly, blessedly, he made it home, unlike so  many of his friends and comrades. It is to them he dedicated his writing.

Smith's war stories are only the half of it. Smith is skilled at conveying  the human connection and camaraderie that forms in war's  trenches and skies. He has a way of revealing enduring universal truths through anecdotes made even more humorous from his perspective as a total outsider. Ultimately, Smith's is a story about finding home-no matter how  foreign-and fighting for it with all you've got. 

Not only did Smith love the Spitfire aircraft, his true gift was how he lived  his life: fiercely determined and passionate, a real spitfire.