"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.
