I Always Wanted to Fly: America S Cold War Airmen - Paperback

by Wolfgang W. E. Samuel (Author), Colonel Wolfgang W. E. Samuel (Author), Ken Hechler (Foreword by)

"In I Always Wanted to Fly Wolfgang Samuel presents a book on a neglected subject, the U.S. Air Force men and women of the Cold War. These are the people who won the Cold War-not by themselves, obviously, but don't ask me how it could have been done without them. Colonel Samuel is a flyer, first of all, but he is also a historian. In this book he concentrates on people. Through Samuel's work, we learn how it was done and by whom." -Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944 to May 7, 1945 "I Always Wanted to Fly displays the clarity that comes from flying on the hot end of the Cold War and, as a consequence, tells us much about the sociopolitical evolution of our recent era as well as revealing how these Air Force missions were flown. Any readers who have marveled at the last half-century's magnificent military aircraft and the supremely professional flyers at their controls will be attracted to this book." -Jerome Klinkowitz, author of With the Tigers over China 1941-1942 and Yanks over Europe: American Flyers in World War II "Wolf Samuel uses personal experiences to underscore American airpower's formidable role in winning the Cold War. Framed by his own excellent prose, Samuel lets the pilots, navigators, and air and ground crew tell their own tales. The result, of course, is a series of ripping good war stories-bona fide 'there I was . . .' narratives-that paint for us a flyer's life during the many separate conflicts that combined to make up the Cold War. I Always Wanted to Fly is a bonanza for airmen to come, and a rich source of satisfaction for those of us who sat alert on cold, windswept airfields, not knowing if today would be the day." -Don Higgins, Colonel, USAF, pilot of the F-111 Aardvark, EF-111 Raven, F-117 Nighthawk, and the B-2 Spirit Col. Wolfgang W. E. Samuel is a distinguished graduate of the 1960 Air Force ROTC, and served in the Air Force until his retirement in 1985. He is the author of German Boy: A Refugee's Story; The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II; American Raiders: The Race to Capture the Luftwaffe's Secrets; and Coming to Colorado: A Young Immigrant's Journey to Become an American Flyer, all published by University Press of Mississippi. Ken Hechler is the author of The Bridge at Remagen.

Front Jacket

Pilots and crewmen remembering the Berlin Airlift, Korea, Vietnam, and secret flights over the Soviet Union

Author Biography

Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, Colonel, US Air Force (Ret.), was born in Germany in 1935 and immigrated to the United States in 1951 at age sixteen with an eighth-grade education and no English-language skills. Upon graduation from the University of Colorado, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force, then flew over one hundred strategic reconnaissance missions against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. His first book German Boy: A Refugee's Story garnered favorable reviews from the New York Times and numerous other outlets. He is author of multiple books published by University Press of Mississippi. Ken Hechler is author of The Bridge at Remagen.