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From Spitfires to Vampires and Beyond: A Kiwi Ace's RAF Journey by Owen Hardy
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
FROM SPITFIRES TO VAMPIRES AND BEYOND: A Kiwi Ace's RAF Journey is derived from a memoir Owen Hardy (1921-2018) had written in 2004 for his family in which he spoke with considerable candidness about his World War II experiences as a fighter pilot flying Spitfires and his subsequent service in the RAF postwar, which turned out to be a bit of mixed blessing for Hardy.
This book was edited by Air Marshal G.A. 'Black' Robertson (RAF retired) whose father had flown with Hardy during the war. What was remarkable about the book is how much, as a reader, I got a real, tangible sense of Hardy himself. His love for flying - going back to his childhood in New Zealand - shines through. Then he takes the reader through his flight training -- from New Zealand to Canada (for advanced training), and finally the UK, where he had his first flight in the Supermarine Spitfire, a plane he flew in combat (over Europe and North Africa) between 1942 and 1945.
With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Hardy shamefully admits that "there was a great sadness and an empty feeling inside me. There was nothing ahead now, no certainty, no future except the unknown. A way of life had suddenly ended; a way in which, dare it be said, I'd enjoyed. It had become a drug, bringing excitement, creating expectation,. The prospect of civilian life was horrifying. The misery of my situation was destroying every hope, all interest. Unlike others, there was no hilarity or celebration for me on the cessation of hostilities."
The first 5 years of peacetime service in the RAF saw Hardy in command of a fighter squadron that was posted to Germany, flying the DeHavilland Vampire, one of Britain's first jet fighters. He also led an aerobatic team flying Vampires in Europe, where he enjoyed considerable success. But his time as a full time fighter pilot was numbered. For the remaining 16 years of his stint in the RAF, Hardy would be assigned to a variety of staff jobs in which airmen of his experience, he found, were often undervalued and passed over for promotion for some of the flimsiest, nonsensical reasons.
From Spitfires to Vampires and Beyond is a fascinating story of historical value, given that the number of World War II veterans still living is rapidly shrinking. It's smartly edited, with footnotes to give the reader a clearer understanding of some of the personalities and events Hardy describes, and contains photos from Hardy's RAF service. Simply put, this book is a keeper.
This book was edited by Air Marshal G.A. 'Black' Robertson (RAF retired) whose father had flown with Hardy during the war. What was remarkable about the book is how much, as a reader, I got a real, tangible sense of Hardy himself. His love for flying - going back to his childhood in New Zealand - shines through. Then he takes the reader through his flight training -- from New Zealand to Canada (for advanced training), and finally the UK, where he had his first flight in the Supermarine Spitfire, a plane he flew in combat (over Europe and North Africa) between 1942 and 1945.
With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Hardy shamefully admits that "there was a great sadness and an empty feeling inside me. There was nothing ahead now, no certainty, no future except the unknown. A way of life had suddenly ended; a way in which, dare it be said, I'd enjoyed. It had become a drug, bringing excitement, creating expectation,. The prospect of civilian life was horrifying. The misery of my situation was destroying every hope, all interest. Unlike others, there was no hilarity or celebration for me on the cessation of hostilities."
The first 5 years of peacetime service in the RAF saw Hardy in command of a fighter squadron that was posted to Germany, flying the DeHavilland Vampire, one of Britain's first jet fighters. He also led an aerobatic team flying Vampires in Europe, where he enjoyed considerable success. But his time as a full time fighter pilot was numbered. For the remaining 16 years of his stint in the RAF, Hardy would be assigned to a variety of staff jobs in which airmen of his experience, he found, were often undervalued and passed over for promotion for some of the flimsiest, nonsensical reasons.
From Spitfires to Vampires and Beyond is a fascinating story of historical value, given that the number of World War II veterans still living is rapidly shrinking. It's smartly edited, with footnotes to give the reader a clearer understanding of some of the personalities and events Hardy describes, and contains photos from Hardy's RAF service. Simply put, this book is a keeper.
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Last May (2023), I went to the local main library - which is named for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - to see Jonathan Eig speak about his new biography of Dr. King, KING: A Life. It is the first biography on the life of Dr. King in 40 years. As I recall, it was a very interesting, and at times, enlightening talk, which showed to some extent the degree of research Eig carried out on his subject, as well as the fact that Eig had interviewed personally many of the few surviving veterans of the Civil Rights Movement who had worked personally with Dr. King and known him very well.
For all its 669 pages, this biography reveals Dr. King in all his complexity, his greatness, his unwavering dedication to social, racial and economic justice, the challenges he faced as a public figure and in his personal life (inclusive of his private indiscretions and the attempts of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI to impugn King and destroy his credibility), his relationships with many of the key people in the Civil Rights Movement and with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the hit his reputation suffered among the nation's leaders and general public when he spoke out publicly against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967 - one year to the day before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had gone in support of striking sanitation workers there (overwhelmingly African American) with their grievances against the local government- and to initiate what he intended to be a Poor People's Campaign later in the year in Washington DC to press the federal government to enact into law legislation aimed at helping to bring about much needed economic reforms on behalf of the poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised throughout the U.S.
Eig points out, as a summation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the following ---
"Our simplified celebration of King comes at a cost. It saps the strength of his philosophical and intellectual contributions. It undercuts his power to inspire change. Even after Americans elected a Black man as president and after that president, Barack Obama, placed a bust of King in the Oval Office, the nation remains racked with racism, ethno-nationalism, cultural division, residential and educational segregation, economic inequality, violence, and a fading sense of hope that government or anyone, will ever fix those problems.
"Where do we go from here? In spite of the way America treated him, King still had faith when he asked that question. Today, his words might help us make our way through these troubled times, but only if we embrace the complicated King, the flawed King, the human King, the radical King; only if we see and hear him clearly again, as America saw and heard him once before."
Indeed.
For all its 669 pages, this biography reveals Dr. King in all his complexity, his greatness, his unwavering dedication to social, racial and economic justice, the challenges he faced as a public figure and in his personal life (inclusive of his private indiscretions and the attempts of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI to impugn King and destroy his credibility), his relationships with many of the key people in the Civil Rights Movement and with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the hit his reputation suffered among the nation's leaders and general public when he spoke out publicly against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967 - one year to the day before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had gone in support of striking sanitation workers there (overwhelmingly African American) with their grievances against the local government- and to initiate what he intended to be a Poor People's Campaign later in the year in Washington DC to press the federal government to enact into law legislation aimed at helping to bring about much needed economic reforms on behalf of the poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised throughout the U.S.
Eig points out, as a summation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the following ---
"Our simplified celebration of King comes at a cost. It saps the strength of his philosophical and intellectual contributions. It undercuts his power to inspire change. Even after Americans elected a Black man as president and after that president, Barack Obama, placed a bust of King in the Oval Office, the nation remains racked with racism, ethno-nationalism, cultural division, residential and educational segregation, economic inequality, violence, and a fading sense of hope that government or anyone, will ever fix those problems.
"Where do we go from here? In spite of the way America treated him, King still had faith when he asked that question. Today, his words might help us make our way through these troubled times, but only if we embrace the complicated King, the flawed King, the human King, the radical King; only if we see and hear him clearly again, as America saw and heard him once before."
Indeed.
SPITFIRE PHOTO-RECCE UNITS OF WORLD WAR 2 by Andrew Fletcher
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This is an absolutely first-rate, comprehensive account (rich with photos on almost every page) of the photo-reconnaissance role played by the Supermarine Spitfire fighter and its variants throughout World War II (from the Phoney War period to Burma and Southeast Asia).
Furthermore, "[e]ven though supplemented by the Mosquito from 1941, the Spitfire remained one of the RAF's primary strategic reconnaissance platforms. Its capabilities even led to the USAAF [United States Army Air Force] adopting the type for some of its own reconnaissance needs."
Furthermore, "[e]ven though supplemented by the Mosquito from 1941, the Spitfire remained one of the RAF's primary strategic reconnaissance platforms. Its capabilities even led to the USAAF [United States Army Air Force] adopting the type for some of its own reconnaissance needs."
Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury by Drew Gilpin Faust
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
NECESSARY TROUBLE: Growing Up at Midcentury I found to be one of the most revealing and insightful memoirs that it has been my pleasure to read for quite a while. Faust, a former President of Harvard University, shares with the reader her family history from both the paternal and maternal sides, as well as her growing consciousness from being a child in a conservative, white, privileged family in Virginia during the 1950s that, as a female, her life was expected to conform to one not altogether different from her mother's. That is, it's a white man's world and a woman's role was meant to be that of wife and mother, while her 3 brothers were raised to live independent lives in a world largely made to accommodate men like them. This is what Faust's mother had tried to explain to her. Faust could and would not subscribe to this societal expectation. As a young girl, she "could see how the lives of so many around me had been deformed and diminished by the constraints of custom and conformity, as well as by the unjust social hierarchies that structured our world. I wanted to understand that world, to see it fully without distortion or illusion."
In Necessary Trouble, Faust provides a unique portrait of the segregated South, and her experiences as a student and activist in both the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. It is also a book that gives the reader a palpable - and at times, vicarious - feel of how the events and changes wrought in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s shaped our society and impacted on Faust's own life, culminating with her graduation from Bryn Mawr College in May 1968.
In Necessary Trouble, Faust provides a unique portrait of the segregated South, and her experiences as a student and activist in both the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. It is also a book that gives the reader a palpable - and at times, vicarious - feel of how the events and changes wrought in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s shaped our society and impacted on Faust's own life, culminating with her graduation from Bryn Mawr College in May 1968.
FRESHWATER ROAD by Denise Nicholas
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
FRESHWATER ROAD is a novel that explores the experiences of Celeste Tyree, an African American woman in her late teens, a student at the University of Michigan, who had left Ann Arbor to work as a volunteer in Mississippi during the 'Freedom Summer' of 1964 as part of the 'One Man One Vote' project to encourage and help African Americans there to register to vote.
Mississippi in the summer of 1964 was a forbidding, fearsome, and at times violent place for African Americans, where the prevailing white power structure kept a tight rein on them, reinforcing in every conceivable way the prevailing ethos of white people as superior to Negroes, and Negroes as inferior, lesser beings better ruled by white people.
From the moment Celeste arrived in Mississippi in early summer and had been given an orientation in Jackson (the state capital) to what her mission would entail over a 2-month period, she is made starkly aware of what daily life in Mississippi is for Negroes. She would face arrest on a couple of occasions and be shot at one night in the home in Pineyville, where she stayed with a Mrs. Geneva Owens, an elderly, deeply pious widow. Celeste would teach the local Negro (African American) children at a 'freedom school' in the local, Negro church, as well as help educate the African American adults in the community who wanted to be registered to vote, notwithstanding the many obstacles the whites had set for close to a century, which prevented (through intimidation and murder) almost all African Americans in Mississippi from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
At the same time, while Celeste is facing all of these challenges, back in Detroit her father, Shuck, an ex-numbers man now running his own bar and living in his own home in the affluent northwest section of the city, is worried about his only daughter. Rather than tell her father face-to-face of her plan to go to Mississippi, Celeste posted him a letter informing him of her intentions shortly before she travelled south. The novel provides a contrast between Celeste's experiences and Shuck's anxieties and concern for his daughter over the 2 months she spent in Mississippi. All in all, this proved to be a very gripping and revelatory novel.
Reading FRESHWATER ROAD has given me - who was born in the autumn of 1964 in Michigan - a deep respect and admiration for those student volunteers, black and white, who risked their lives to go to Mississippi during 'Freedom Summer' to help bring democracy and voting rights to the African Americans there. Every American now living today needs to know about "Freedom Summer" and the sacrifices that were made not quite 60 years ago to help put an end to the oppressive yoke of Jim Crow segregation in the Deep South.
Mississippi in the summer of 1964 was a forbidding, fearsome, and at times violent place for African Americans, where the prevailing white power structure kept a tight rein on them, reinforcing in every conceivable way the prevailing ethos of white people as superior to Negroes, and Negroes as inferior, lesser beings better ruled by white people.
From the moment Celeste arrived in Mississippi in early summer and had been given an orientation in Jackson (the state capital) to what her mission would entail over a 2-month period, she is made starkly aware of what daily life in Mississippi is for Negroes. She would face arrest on a couple of occasions and be shot at one night in the home in Pineyville, where she stayed with a Mrs. Geneva Owens, an elderly, deeply pious widow. Celeste would teach the local Negro (African American) children at a 'freedom school' in the local, Negro church, as well as help educate the African American adults in the community who wanted to be registered to vote, notwithstanding the many obstacles the whites had set for close to a century, which prevented (through intimidation and murder) almost all African Americans in Mississippi from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
At the same time, while Celeste is facing all of these challenges, back in Detroit her father, Shuck, an ex-numbers man now running his own bar and living in his own home in the affluent northwest section of the city, is worried about his only daughter. Rather than tell her father face-to-face of her plan to go to Mississippi, Celeste posted him a letter informing him of her intentions shortly before she travelled south. The novel provides a contrast between Celeste's experiences and Shuck's anxieties and concern for his daughter over the 2 months she spent in Mississippi. All in all, this proved to be a very gripping and revelatory novel.
Reading FRESHWATER ROAD has given me - who was born in the autumn of 1964 in Michigan - a deep respect and admiration for those student volunteers, black and white, who risked their lives to go to Mississippi during 'Freedom Summer' to help bring democracy and voting rights to the African Americans there. Every American now living today needs to know about "Freedom Summer" and the sacrifices that were made not quite 60 years ago to help put an end to the oppressive yoke of Jim Crow segregation in the Deep South.
Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
A few weeks ago, I was watching on YouTube a 2013 interview from radio station WNYC that the comedienne Joan Rivers had with the author about this book. I was much intrigued by the interview, because I had grown up watching The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson on the NBC TV network during the 1970s and 1980s. For those people who didn't grow up in the U.S. at the time there was a 3-channel TV media universe (NBC, CBS, and ABC), they cannot appreciate the considerable influence and respect that Johnny Carson garnered during his 30 years of hosting The Tonight Show (1962-1992). Carson set the standard for all TV hosts to this day. Indeed, for any aspiring musician or comedian invited to appear on his show, a nod from Carson could make his/her career for life.
The interview rekindled my interest in Carson which had gone largely dormant from the time of his death in January 2005, age 79. So, I bought this book and WOW! did I ever learn much more about Johnny Carson the private man than I could've ever imagined while he was alive. His drinking problems and shyness (Carson was an introvert and very much a product of the Midwest where he grew up during the Depression), I knew something about from a rare public interview he gave the journalist Mike Wallace on the national TV program 60 Minutes back in 1979.
Henry Bushkin was a newly minted lawyer in New York City when he first made the acquaintance of Johnny Carson in 1970 through his best friend Arthur Kassel, "[a] security expert/crime photographer/police groupie with slightly grandiose ambitions" who had befriended Carson at a police benefit. The meeting between Bushkin and Carson was a brief one, and all-business. Yet from this meeting would develop over the next 18 years a close relationship between both men in which Bushkin faithfully served Carson's interests as his legal advisor (first in New York and later in Los Angeles after The Tonight Show had relocated to the West Coast), fixer, confidant, and close friend. Yet, it was a friendship wholly on Carson's terms. For Carson liked to be in control and could at turns be extremely generous or cold, abrupt, and unforgiving with people whom he felt betrayed him or failed to adequately serve his interests.
This was a delightful book to read because Bushkin showed in the telling that he has a novelist's eye for detail, making Johnny Carson come alive on the page. Frankly, I was surprised to learn that Carson was a voracious (and talented) womanizer who wasn't above fooling around, even when he was married. "Bushkin [also] explains why Carson felt he always had to be married, why he couldn't visit his son in the hospital and wouldn't attend his mother's funeral [Ruth Carson was very much a cold fish who never showed Carson any affection, no matter what he did for his parents after he had become a megastar], and much more."
Simply put, Johnny Carson is one of the best revelatory, readable, poignant, and uproarious books of its kind that I've ever read. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about a man who, even after his death, continues to serve as a guiding star for TV hosts today.
The interview rekindled my interest in Carson which had gone largely dormant from the time of his death in January 2005, age 79. So, I bought this book and WOW! did I ever learn much more about Johnny Carson the private man than I could've ever imagined while he was alive. His drinking problems and shyness (Carson was an introvert and very much a product of the Midwest where he grew up during the Depression), I knew something about from a rare public interview he gave the journalist Mike Wallace on the national TV program 60 Minutes back in 1979.
Henry Bushkin was a newly minted lawyer in New York City when he first made the acquaintance of Johnny Carson in 1970 through his best friend Arthur Kassel, "[a] security expert/crime photographer/police groupie with slightly grandiose ambitions" who had befriended Carson at a police benefit. The meeting between Bushkin and Carson was a brief one, and all-business. Yet from this meeting would develop over the next 18 years a close relationship between both men in which Bushkin faithfully served Carson's interests as his legal advisor (first in New York and later in Los Angeles after The Tonight Show had relocated to the West Coast), fixer, confidant, and close friend. Yet, it was a friendship wholly on Carson's terms. For Carson liked to be in control and could at turns be extremely generous or cold, abrupt, and unforgiving with people whom he felt betrayed him or failed to adequately serve his interests.
This was a delightful book to read because Bushkin showed in the telling that he has a novelist's eye for detail, making Johnny Carson come alive on the page. Frankly, I was surprised to learn that Carson was a voracious (and talented) womanizer who wasn't above fooling around, even when he was married. "Bushkin [also] explains why Carson felt he always had to be married, why he couldn't visit his son in the hospital and wouldn't attend his mother's funeral [Ruth Carson was very much a cold fish who never showed Carson any affection, no matter what he did for his parents after he had become a megastar], and much more."
Simply put, Johnny Carson is one of the best revelatory, readable, poignant, and uproarious books of its kind that I've ever read. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about a man who, even after his death, continues to serve as a guiding star for TV hosts today.
Fighter Pilot: A Personal Record of the Campaign in France 1939-1940 by Diana Richey
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
FIGHTER PILOT is Paul Richey's account of his experiences with a frontline Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter squadron in France from the earliest days of the Second World War, culminating with the Battle of France of May-June 1940, in which Richey (who also spoke fluent French) and his squadron mates, suddenly finds themselves in the thick of the action against the full might of the Luftwaffe in the wake of the Blitzkrieg Hitler unleashed on Western Europe.
Originally published anonymously in 1941, Richey later updated the book several times after the war to give the reader a fuller sense of the life he experienced as a young pilot flying Hawker Hurricanes and the many personalities, both within the squadron and among the civilian and military figures in the RAF leadership in France with whom he often interacted.
The book is also richly supplemented with photos of Richey, his squadron mates and the planes they flew, their French Air Force compatriots and the aircraft they flew, people outside of the RAF with whom Richey became acquainted in France during the period covered in the book, as well as some photos of the German airmen and planes Richey faced in combat.
What I most like about Paul Richey's writing is how relatable it is and how well it conveys to the reader the tempo of life in the early months of the war, which went from the somewhat somnolent pace of the Phoney War period to the frenetic and chaotic atmosphere which characterized the Battle of France. A battle in which Richey faced overwhelming odds in aerial combat, was severely wounded, and barely managed to escape back to Britain when the French collapse was imminent.
Originally published anonymously in 1941, Richey later updated the book several times after the war to give the reader a fuller sense of the life he experienced as a young pilot flying Hawker Hurricanes and the many personalities, both within the squadron and among the civilian and military figures in the RAF leadership in France with whom he often interacted.
The book is also richly supplemented with photos of Richey, his squadron mates and the planes they flew, their French Air Force compatriots and the aircraft they flew, people outside of the RAF with whom Richey became acquainted in France during the period covered in the book, as well as some photos of the German airmen and planes Richey faced in combat.
What I most like about Paul Richey's writing is how relatable it is and how well it conveys to the reader the tempo of life in the early months of the war, which went from the somewhat somnolent pace of the Phoney War period to the frenetic and chaotic atmosphere which characterized the Battle of France. A battle in which Richey faced overwhelming odds in aerial combat, was severely wounded, and barely managed to escape back to Britain when the French collapse was imminent.
Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me by Ralph Macchio
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me is one of the most heartwarming and life-affirming books that I have read in a long time. Ralph Macchio provides an enlightening and sobering summation of his life and career from the time he auditioned for The Karate Kid a movie that, since its release in the summer of 1984, has taken on an iconic status and enjoys an ever-growing fan base. I have to pinch myself because it seems incredible that it has now been 39 years since I first saw the movie.
Early in July 1984, a friend of mine from high school who had joined the Army months earlier, returned home on furlough after completing his medic training at Fort Sam Houston (TX). At the time, I was 19-and-a-half and had completed my sophomore year of college.
Along with a mutual friend, we went out to the movies downtown. We were undecided on what movie to see. But we three settled on "THE KARATE KID" not knowing what to expect.
By degrees, the movie sucked me in. My friends and I would laugh when Mr. Miyagi would give Daniel these seemingly pointless tasks to perform. But Daniel stayed the course and showed he had grit. So, when the movie reached its climax with Daniel taking on his tormentor and bully, Johnny Lawrence, and winning the tournament, we were thrilled.
To this day, I smile whenever I think about "The Karate Kid" because it's one of those movies that always delights me. Indeed, reading this book has kindled inside me a desire to see The Karate Kid again, along with The Karate Kid, Part II, both of which I haven't seen since they debuted in 1984 and 1986, respectively. Along with the current Netflix series 'Cobra Kai' which brings an extra richness to the lives of Daniel LaRusso, Johnny Lawrence, their families, and some of the other key figures from The Karate Kid movies.
I think that the following remarks by Ralph Macchio aptly sum up what The Karate Kid movie has come to mean to generations of movie goers who, since 1984, have taken it into their hearts for the values it conveys:
"The film is a prime example of when Hollywood gets it all right. It teaches and inspires through pure entertainment. Sure, the cynics can call it the silly popcorn karate movie that it is. And that's fair enough. But the human elements beneath all of that and the impact on the world's audience will never cease to inspire me in my life. And what a wonderful gift that is."
Early in July 1984, a friend of mine from high school who had joined the Army months earlier, returned home on furlough after completing his medic training at Fort Sam Houston (TX). At the time, I was 19-and-a-half and had completed my sophomore year of college.
Along with a mutual friend, we went out to the movies downtown. We were undecided on what movie to see. But we three settled on "THE KARATE KID" not knowing what to expect.
By degrees, the movie sucked me in. My friends and I would laugh when Mr. Miyagi would give Daniel these seemingly pointless tasks to perform. But Daniel stayed the course and showed he had grit. So, when the movie reached its climax with Daniel taking on his tormentor and bully, Johnny Lawrence, and winning the tournament, we were thrilled.
To this day, I smile whenever I think about "The Karate Kid" because it's one of those movies that always delights me. Indeed, reading this book has kindled inside me a desire to see The Karate Kid again, along with The Karate Kid, Part II, both of which I haven't seen since they debuted in 1984 and 1986, respectively. Along with the current Netflix series 'Cobra Kai' which brings an extra richness to the lives of Daniel LaRusso, Johnny Lawrence, their families, and some of the other key figures from The Karate Kid movies.
I think that the following remarks by Ralph Macchio aptly sum up what The Karate Kid movie has come to mean to generations of movie goers who, since 1984, have taken it into their hearts for the values it conveys:
"The film is a prime example of when Hollywood gets it all right. It teaches and inspires through pure entertainment. Sure, the cynics can call it the silly popcorn karate movie that it is. And that's fair enough. But the human elements beneath all of that and the impact on the world's audience will never cease to inspire me in my life. And what a wonderful gift that is."
The JG 26 War Diary, Volume 2 by Donald Caldwell
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
The JG26 War Diary, Volume Two: 1943-1945 is, in many respects, one of the most comprehensive, well-researched histories of an air combat unit that I have yet read. It chronicles - through a rich variety of photographs and personal commentaries from pilots and ground staff who served in JG 26 - the story of one of the Luftwaffe's most prestigious and storied fighter units of World War II.
Volume 2 begins on January 1, 1943 when JG 26 was stationed along the Channel coast, bracing itself to contend yet again not only with the Royal Air Force (RAF), but also with a new enemy which came on the scene the previous year: the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and its units of fighters and medium and long-range strategic bombers that made up the Eighth Air Force.
Throughout 1943, the "Mighty Eighth" would grow in size as new USAAF fighter and bomber units arrived from the U.S. to augment units already established in the UK. JG 26 would be tasked with attacking USAAF medium and heavy (long-range) bomber groups as the latter groups began to take the war from German-occupied Europe into the heart of Germany itself through its daylight bombing campaign. The air war escalated in intensity.
Early in 1943, the Luftwaffe High Command had initiated plans to shift JG 26 piecemeal to the Eastern Front, changing places with JG 54 whose Staffeln (squadrons) had already seen extensive combat there. The book details the combat service of the few JG 26 units that were posted to the Eastern Front before the scheme to post JG 26 there was scrapped, owing to the fact that several of the pilots of the one Gruppe of JG 54 that was transferred to the West had found it especially difficult to cope with the much more intensive pace of air combat against the RAF and USAAF, which, in contrast to air combat on the Eastern Front, tended to take place at higher altitudes. So it was that the JG 26 unit that went East, was sent back to the Channel coast and fully re-incorporated into JG 26. The Third Gruppe of JG 54 (III/JG 54) remained in the West, where it served alongside JG 26 for the remainder of the war.
The year 1944 was one of dramatic change in the fortunes of JG 26, as well as Germany itself. The Allies landed in France in June of that year and gradually, German forces would be pushed out of most of Western Europe into Germany itself. Through all those titanic battles, JG 26 managed to maintain cohesion in its respective units as it was called upon to defend Germany. As a reader, I could almost feel the tension that many JG 26 pilots and ground staff experienced as JG 26 pulled out of its long-established bases in France and Belgium and resettled along the German frontier, challenging Allied forces now converging on Germany.
The struggle would continue on until May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered.
I cannot praise Volume 2 enough. Its two appendices contain extensive information on the organizational structure of JG 26 and the victory claims made by its pilots between 1939 and 1945. There is also a glossary, which goes a long way toward explaining to both aviation enthusiasts (like me) and lay reader alike, aviation terms, abbreviations, and German terminology used throughout the book.
Volume 2 begins on January 1, 1943 when JG 26 was stationed along the Channel coast, bracing itself to contend yet again not only with the Royal Air Force (RAF), but also with a new enemy which came on the scene the previous year: the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and its units of fighters and medium and long-range strategic bombers that made up the Eighth Air Force.
Throughout 1943, the "Mighty Eighth" would grow in size as new USAAF fighter and bomber units arrived from the U.S. to augment units already established in the UK. JG 26 would be tasked with attacking USAAF medium and heavy (long-range) bomber groups as the latter groups began to take the war from German-occupied Europe into the heart of Germany itself through its daylight bombing campaign. The air war escalated in intensity.
Early in 1943, the Luftwaffe High Command had initiated plans to shift JG 26 piecemeal to the Eastern Front, changing places with JG 54 whose Staffeln (squadrons) had already seen extensive combat there. The book details the combat service of the few JG 26 units that were posted to the Eastern Front before the scheme to post JG 26 there was scrapped, owing to the fact that several of the pilots of the one Gruppe of JG 54 that was transferred to the West had found it especially difficult to cope with the much more intensive pace of air combat against the RAF and USAAF, which, in contrast to air combat on the Eastern Front, tended to take place at higher altitudes. So it was that the JG 26 unit that went East, was sent back to the Channel coast and fully re-incorporated into JG 26. The Third Gruppe of JG 54 (III/JG 54) remained in the West, where it served alongside JG 26 for the remainder of the war.
The year 1944 was one of dramatic change in the fortunes of JG 26, as well as Germany itself. The Allies landed in France in June of that year and gradually, German forces would be pushed out of most of Western Europe into Germany itself. Through all those titanic battles, JG 26 managed to maintain cohesion in its respective units as it was called upon to defend Germany. As a reader, I could almost feel the tension that many JG 26 pilots and ground staff experienced as JG 26 pulled out of its long-established bases in France and Belgium and resettled along the German frontier, challenging Allied forces now converging on Germany.
The struggle would continue on until May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered.
I cannot praise Volume 2 enough. Its two appendices contain extensive information on the organizational structure of JG 26 and the victory claims made by its pilots between 1939 and 1945. There is also a glossary, which goes a long way toward explaining to both aviation enthusiasts (like me) and lay reader alike, aviation terms, abbreviations, and German terminology used throughout the book.
The Jg26 War Diary: Volume 2: 1943-1945 by Donald Caldwell
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
The JG26 War Diary, Volume Two: 1943-1945 is, in many respects, one of the most comprehensive, well-researched histories of an air combat unit that I have yet read. It chronicles - through a rich variety of photographs and personal commentaries from pilots and ground staff who served in JG 26 - the story of one of the Luftwaffe's most prestigious and storied fighter units of World War II.
Volume 2 begins on January 1, 1943 when JG 26 was stationed along the Channel coast, bracing itself to contend yet again not only with the Royal Air Force (RAF), but also with a new enemy which came on the scene the previous year: the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and its units of fighters and medium and long-range strategic bombers that made up the Eighth Air Force.
Throughout 1943, the "Mighty Eighth" would grow in size as new USAAF fighter and bomber units arrived from the U.S. to augment units already established in the UK. JG 26 would be tasked with attacking USAAF medium and heavy (long-range) bomber groups as the latter groups began to take the war from German-occupied Europe into the heart of Germany itself through its daylight bombing campaign. The air war escalated in intensity.
Early in 1943, the Luftwaffe High Command had initiated plans to shift JG 26 piecemeal to the Eastern Front, changing places with JG 54 whose Staffeln (squadrons) had already seen extensive combat there. The book details the combat service of the few JG 26 units that were posted to the Eastern Front before the scheme to post JG 26 there was scrapped, owing to the fact that several of the pilots of the one Gruppe of JG 54 that was transferred to the West had found it especially difficult to cope with the much more intensive pace of air combat against the RAF and USAAF, which, in contrast to air combat on the Eastern Front, tended to take place at higher altitudes. So it was that the JG 26 unit that went East, was sent back to the Channel coast and fully re-incorporated into JG 26. The Third Gruppe of JG 54 (III/JG 54) remained in the West, where it served alongside JG 26 for the remainder of the war.
The year 1944 was one of dramatic change in the fortunes of JG 26, as well as Germany itself. The Allies landed in France in June of that year and gradually, German forces would be pushed out of most of Western Europe into Germany itself. Through all those titanic battles, JG 26 managed to maintain cohesion in its respective units as it was called upon to defend Germany. As a reader, I could almost feel the tension that many JG 26 pilots and ground staff experienced as JG 26 pulled out of its long-established bases in France and Belgium and resettled along the German frontier, challenging Allied forces now converging on Germany.
The struggle would continue on until May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered.
I cannot praise Volume 2 enough. Its two appendices contain extensive information on the organizational structure of JG 26 and the victory claims made by its pilots between 1939 and 1945. There is also a glossary, which goes a long way toward explaining to both aviation enthusiasts (like me) and lay reader alike, aviation terms, abbreviations, and German terminology used throughout the book.
Volume 2 begins on January 1, 1943 when JG 26 was stationed along the Channel coast, bracing itself to contend yet again not only with the Royal Air Force (RAF), but also with a new enemy which came on the scene the previous year: the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and its units of fighters and medium and long-range strategic bombers that made up the Eighth Air Force.
Throughout 1943, the "Mighty Eighth" would grow in size as new USAAF fighter and bomber units arrived from the U.S. to augment units already established in the UK. JG 26 would be tasked with attacking USAAF medium and heavy (long-range) bomber groups as the latter groups began to take the war from German-occupied Europe into the heart of Germany itself through its daylight bombing campaign. The air war escalated in intensity.
Early in 1943, the Luftwaffe High Command had initiated plans to shift JG 26 piecemeal to the Eastern Front, changing places with JG 54 whose Staffeln (squadrons) had already seen extensive combat there. The book details the combat service of the few JG 26 units that were posted to the Eastern Front before the scheme to post JG 26 there was scrapped, owing to the fact that several of the pilots of the one Gruppe of JG 54 that was transferred to the West had found it especially difficult to cope with the much more intensive pace of air combat against the RAF and USAAF, which, in contrast to air combat on the Eastern Front, tended to take place at higher altitudes. So it was that the JG 26 unit that went East, was sent back to the Channel coast and fully re-incorporated into JG 26. The Third Gruppe of JG 54 (III/JG 54) remained in the West, where it served alongside JG 26 for the remainder of the war.
The year 1944 was one of dramatic change in the fortunes of JG 26, as well as Germany itself. The Allies landed in France in June of that year and gradually, German forces would be pushed out of most of Western Europe into Germany itself. Through all those titanic battles, JG 26 managed to maintain cohesion in its respective units as it was called upon to defend Germany. As a reader, I could almost feel the tension that many JG 26 pilots and ground staff experienced as JG 26 pulled out of its long-established bases in France and Belgium and resettled along the German frontier, challenging Allied forces now converging on Germany.
The struggle would continue on until May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered.
I cannot praise Volume 2 enough. Its two appendices contain extensive information on the organizational structure of JG 26 and the victory claims made by its pilots between 1939 and 1945. There is also a glossary, which goes a long way toward explaining to both aviation enthusiasts (like me) and lay reader alike, aviation terms, abbreviations, and German terminology used throughout the book.