The Millionaires' Unit is the story of a gilded generation of young
men from the zenith of privilege: a Rockefeller, the son of the head of
the Union Pacific Railroad, several who counted friends and relatives
among presidents and statesmen of the day. They had it all and,
remarkably by modern standards, they were prepared to risk it all to
fight a distant war in France. Driven by the belief that their
membership in the American elite required certain sacrifice, schooled in
heroism and the nature of leadership, they determined to be first into
the conflict, leading the way ahead of America's declaration that it
would join the war. At the heart of the group was the Yale flying club,
six of whom are the heroes of this book. They would share rivalries over
girlfriends, jealousies over membership in Skull and Bones, and fierce
ambition to be the most daring young man over the battlefields of
France, where the casualties among flyers were chillingly high. One of
the six would go on to become the principal architect of the American
Air Force's first strategic bomber force. Others would bring home
decorations and tales of high life experiences in Paris. Some would not
return, having made the greatest sacrifice of all in perhaps the last
noble war. For readers of Flyboys, The Greatest Generation, or
Flags Of Our Fathers, this patriotic, romantic, absorbing book is
narrative military history of the best kind.
