Forgotten Fields of America

Forgotten Fields of America
Author: Lou Thole
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1996
Genre: Air bases
ISBN: 9781575100104

During a relatively short period of time, from 1939 to late 1943, the Army Air Corps grew from just 17 air bases to 345 main bases, 116 sub-bases and 322 auxiliary fields. Additionally, there were almost 500 bombing and gunnery ranges. This volume tells the story of 12 of those fields and shows them as they were during WWII and as they appear today: Freeman, Moton, Carlstrom, Buckingham, San Angelo, Hondo, Wendover, Walnut Ridge, Pyote, Pratt, Craig and Sioux.--Publisher description.

Central America's Forgotten History

Central America's Forgotten History
Author: Aviva Chomsky
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2021-04-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807056480

Restores the region’s fraught history of repression and resistance to popular consciousness and connects the United States’ interventions and influence to the influx of refugees seeking asylum today. At the center of the current immigration debate are migrants from Central America fleeing poverty, corruption, and violence in search of refuge in the United States. In Central America’s Forgotten History, Aviva Chomsky answers the urgent question “How did we get here?” Centering the centuries-long intertwined histories of US expansion and Indigenous and Central American struggles against inequality and oppression, Chomsky highlights the pernicious cycle of colonial and neocolonial development policies that promote cultures of violence and forgetting without any accountability or restorative reparations. Focusing on the valiant struggles for social and economic justice in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, Chomsky restores these vivid and gripping events to popular consciousness. Tracing the roots of displacement and migration in Central America to the Spanish conquest and bringing us to the present day, she concludes that the more immediate roots of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras lie in the wars and in the US interventions of the 1980s and the peace accords of the 1990s that set the stage for neoliberalism in Central America. Chomsky also examines how and why histories and memories are suppressed, and the impact of losing historical memory. Only by erasing history can we claim that Central American countries created their own poverty and violence, while the United States’ enjoyment and profit from their bananas, coffee, mining, clothing, and export of arms are simply unrelated curiosities.

Honey, I Bought an Airplane

Honey, I Bought an Airplane
Author: Bob Hechlinski
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2012-07-25
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1463439911

No one else ever took a trip like this. Nearly 600 trips, actually. But who cares, I thought, when first approached to edit the manuscript for this book about flying into every little airport in Indiana, then moving on to those in surrounding states? Pilots? Perhaps. Even so Im a writer, not a pilot. And Bob Hechlinski is a pilot not a writer. Except Bob has an insatiable curiosity about people, places, events, you name it. To him, an airport is more than a name or a spot on a map. Hes a great listener. He has ears and eyes for detail nuggets that many people either overlook or dont connect with other nuggets like dots on a page, to create picture after picture after picture. And Bob has a gift for gab. Storytelling, if you will. So if you believe (as I do) that writing is talking when you cant be there, give this book a listen. Hear things you never knew about John Dillinger, Al Capone, a WWII pilot named OHare back-road encounters on Mackinac Island and not flying under the bridge out-maneuvering storm clouds the Oshkosh air show close-knit neighborhoods with hangar-garages airports in Ohio police in Gary, Indiana the link between Northwestern University and a historic Lake Michigan passenger-ferry tragedy how a teenagers Happy Birthday flight launched a career and more. Much more. Some people read books from page 1; the opening line hooks them. Others check the ending first. (If I like how it ends, Ill like getting there.) With Honey, feel free to start in the middle; pick a page any page. Chances are, you will quickly be drawn in and pulled onward from one mini-tale to the next. And at some point, youll say Geez, lets go back and read the rest! I did. Cmon along for the ride. Bob makes even the shortest hop a fun trip. Richard E. Schingoethe

The Forgotten 500

The Forgotten 500
Author: Gregory A. Freeman
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2008-09-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1101032340

The astonishing, never before told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II—when the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia... During a bombing campaign over Romanian oil fields, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian farmers and peasants risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers while they waited for rescue, and in 1944, Operation Halyard was born. The risks were incredible. The starving Americans in Yugoslavia had to construct a landing strip large enough for C-47 cargo planes—without tools, without alerting the Germans, and without endangering the villagers. And the cargo planes had to make it through enemy airspace and back—without getting shot down themselves. Classified for over half a century for political reasons, the full account of this unforgettable story of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bravery is now being told for the first time ever. The Forgotten 500 is the gripping, behind-the-scenes look at the greatest escape of World War II. “Amazing [and] riveting.”—James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers

The Tuskegee Airmen Chronology

The Tuskegee Airmen Chronology
Author: Daniel Haulman
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2018-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1603063412

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American pilots in American military service, is a complex tapestry with many story threads, such as the training story, the 99th Fighter Squadron story, the 332d Fighter Group Red Tail story, and the 477th Bombardment Group story. One story did not end when another began. The stories unfolded simultaneously. For example, while some Tuskegee Airmen were learning to fly at Tuskegee, others were flying combat missions overseas, while still others were being arrested for resisting segregation at another base. This Tuskegee Airmen Chronology links the stories together, filling a crucial historiographical niche. All the important events in Tuskegee Airmen history are included, such as the graduation of each flying class at Tuskegee Army Air Field, the activation and movement of each Tuskegee Airmen flying unit, the movement to and from each base, the award of each of the 96 Tuskegee Airmen Distinguished Flying Crosses, the achievement of each of the 112 Tuskegee Airmen aerial victories over enemy aircraft, a brief summary of every one of the 312 missions the Tuskegee Airmen flew for the Fifteenth Air Force, all the important Tuskegee Airmen leaders, and when each assumed command of his flying unit, the transition to each new aircraft type, and each Tuskegee Airmen who was shot down, disappeared, was captured, or returned. Readers should find it a unique and valuable tool for understanding and appreciating the varieties of Tuskegee Airmen experience as they distinguished themselves in the air and on the ground and forged new frontiers for equal opportunity. Dr. Dan Haulman the leading authority on the Tuskegee Airmen, a sought-after presenter on the topic. The chronology format is unique and comprehensive; it significantly adds to the published literature about the Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen Chronology is being released at time of increased interest in Tuskegee Airmen history. The Tuskegee Airmen Chronology: A Detailed Timeline of the Red Tails and Other Black Pilots of World War II provides a unique year-by-year overview of the fascinating story of the Tuskegee Airmen, embracing important events in the formation of the first military training for black pilots in United States history, the phases of their training at various airfields in Tuskegee and elsewhere, their continued training at other bases around the United States, and their deployment overseas, first to North Africa and then to Sicily and Italy. The book is the fifth on the subject by Airmen expert Dr. Daniel Haulman. The Tuskegee Airmen are best known for flying P-47s and red-tailed P-51s to escort B-17 and B-24 bombers deep into enemy territory. Their exemplary performance proved conclusively that given the opportunity and resources black men could fly and fight in combat every bit as well as their white counterparts. They lost fewer bombers than the other fighter groups, and they shot down 112 enemy aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen Chronology also includes abundant information on the many Tuskegee Airmen who were not fighter pilots, including B-25 bomber crews who trained in the U.S., and the thousands of Tuskegee Airmen who served as ground support. They fought two enemies, Nazis in Europe and racism at home, and through their dedication and efforts earned a hard-won double victory.

The Wild Vine

The Wild Vine
Author: Todd Kliman
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2011-05-03
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0307409376

A rich romp through untold American history featuring fabulous characters, The Wild Vine is the tale of a little-known American grape that rocked the fine-wine world of the nineteenth century and is poised to do so again today. Author Todd Kliman sets out on an epic quest to unravel the mystery behind Norton, a grape used to make a Missouri wine that claimed a prestigious gold medal at an international exhibition in Vienna in 1873. At a time when the vineyards of France were being ravaged by phylloxera, this grape seemed to promise a bright future for a truly American brand of wine-making, earthy and wild. And then Norton all but vanished. What happened? The narrative begins more than a hundred years before California wines were thought to have put America on the map as a wine-making nation and weaves together the lives of a fascinating cast of renegades. We encounter the suicidal Dr. Daniel Norton, tinkering in his experimental garden in 1820s Richmond, Virginia. Half on purpose and half by chance, he creates a hybrid grape that can withstand the harsh New World climate and produce good, drinkable wine, thus succeeding where so many others had failed so fantastically before, from the Jamestown colonists to Thomas Jefferson himself. Thanks to an influential Long Island, New York, seed catalog, the grape moves west, where it is picked up in Missouri by German immigrants who craft the historic 1873 bottling. Prohibition sees these vineyards burned to the ground by government order, but bootleggers keep the grape alive in hidden backwoods plots. Generations later, retired Air Force pilot Dennis Horton, who grew up playing in the abandoned wine caves of the very winery that produced the 1873 Norton, brings cuttings of the grape back home to Virginia. Here, dot-com-millionaire-turned-vintner Jenni McCloud, on an improbable journey of her own, becomes Norton’s ultimate champion, deciding, against all odds, to stake her entire reputation on the outsider grape. Brilliant and provocative, The Wild Vine shares with readers a great American secret, resuscitating the Norton grape and its elusive, inky drink and forever changing the way we look at wine, America, and long-cherished notions of identity and reinvention.

The Bone and Sinew of the Land

The Bone and Sinew of the Land
Author: Anna-Lisa Cox
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1610398114

The long-hidden stories of America's black pioneers, the frontier they settled, and their fight for the heart of the nation When black settlers Keziah and Charles Grier started clearing their frontier land in 1818, they couldn't know that they were part of the nation's earliest struggle for equality; they were just looking to build a better life. But within a few years, the Griers would become early Underground Railroad conductors, joining with fellow pioneers and other allies to confront the growing tyranny of bondage and injustice. The Bone and Sinew of the Land tells the Griers' story and the stories of many others like them: the lost history of the nation's first Great Migration. In building hundreds of settlements on the frontier, these black pioneers were making a stand for equality and freedom. Their new home, the Northwest Territory -- the wild region that would become present-day Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin -- was the first territory to ban slavery and have equal voting rights for all men. Though forgotten today, in their own time the successes of these pioneers made them the targets of racist backlash. Political and even armed battles soon ensued, tearing apart families and communities long before the Civil War. This groundbreaking work of research reveals America's forgotten frontier, where these settlers were inspired by the belief that all men are created equal and a brighter future was possible. Named one of Smithsonian's Best History Books of 2018

White Cargo

White Cargo
Author: Don Jordan
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2008-03-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0814742963

White Cargo is the forgotten story of the thousands of Britons who lived and died in bondage in Britain's American colonies. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more than 300,000 white people were shipped to America as slaves. Urchins were swept up from London's streets to labor in the tobacco fields, where life expectancy was no more than two years. Brothels were raided to provide "breeders" for Virginia. Hopeful migrants were duped into signing as indentured servants, unaware they would become personal property who could be bought, sold, and even gambled away. Transported convicts were paraded for sale like livestock. Drawing on letters crying for help, diaries, and court and government archives, Don Jordan and Michael Walsh demonstrate that the brutalities usually associated with black slavery alone were perpetrated on whites throughout British rule. The trade ended with American independence, but the British still tried to sell convicts in their former colonies, which prompted one of the most audacious plots in Anglo-American history. This is a saga of exploration and cruelty spanning 170 years that has been submerged under the overwhelming memory of black slavery. White Cargo brings the brutal, uncomfortable story to the surface.

Shadow

Shadow
Author: Neil Hunter Raiford
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2018-08-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780786481491

This is the poignant and exciting story of a statistical anomaly, a B-24 bomber crew that completed 50 combat missions in World War II. This crew was part of the famous 450th Bomb Group, which was nicknamed the "Cottontails" because of their white rudders. As part of the 15th Army Air Force, they flew strategic bombing missions out of Manduria, Italy (in the heel of the boot) and struck strategic targets which were out of the reach of the 8th Army Air Force bases in England. The group lost 1,505 airmen in only a year and a half--the equivalent of losing their effective flying strength three times over. The book's title comes from the crew's bomber, Shadow, which in turn was named for the pilot's black cocker spaniel that flew with them on training missions. Based on interviews with the surviving crewmembers and their families as well as extant archival source material, the book details the childhood, training and post-war life of each of its 13 principal characters. Chapter One is a discussion of each man's boyhood years and Chapter Two provides details of the training that each received. In Chapter Three, the original crew of ten (Crew #4-N-33) was formed in Clovis, New Mexico. An assignment for training in Clovis and in B-24s meant that the crew had been designated for heavy bombardment. Chapter Four includes a description of the four main objectives for the crew, one of which was to participate in POINTBLANK, the Combined Bomber Offensive, which called for the destruction of German fighter aircraft plants, ball bearing plants, oil refineries, rubber plants, munitions factories, sub pens and bases. Details of the structural components of most missions are provided in Chapter Five. The crew completes its first missions in Chapter Six. In Chapter Seven, "Shadow" completes its last after taking enemy fire, and Chapter Eight introduces a new plane, Sleepy Time Gal. The book's Epilogue contains information about the post-war lives of the crew.