In the Event of a Water Landing At 8:15 A.M. on October 14, 1947, Chuck Martin, the 26-year-old pilot of the Boeing 314 flying boat named Bermuda Sky Queen, attempted to do what had never been done before - land an 88,000 pound aircraft in thirty-five-foot high seas. The lives of sixty-eight passengers and crew on board depended on his ability. A mile away was the 327-foot US Coast Guard Cutter George M. Bibb. The cutter's crew watched as the plane descended. If Sky Queen survived the landing, getting the passengers to safety would be their job. Nine years later and half a world away, Captain Richard Ogg, flying the Pan American Airways Stratocruiser Sovereign of the Skies, was forced ditch the aircraft along with its forty-three passengers and crew. The Coast Guard was nearby. Manning Ocean Station November was the US Coast Guard Cutter Pontchartrain. Once more, rescuing the survivors would be in their hands. In the Event of a Water Landing tells for the first time the full stories of the Bermuda Sky Queen and Sovereign of the Skies rescues, the only two completely successful open ocean ditchings in Commercial Aviation history. These two stories encompass many facets of ditchings: bad weather, engine failure, horrific sea conditions, and indomitable courage in the face of death. Between these two are tales of other ditchings as well as the journey we humans have undertaken from the beginning of transoceanic flight to today. Using the voices of passengers, flight crew, and those who rescued them, an amazing tale unfolds. Their vivid memories, interspersed with contemporary news reports, serve to flesh out the unemotional entries from official investigations. These ditchings and rescues embody the hopes, fears, and courage of people facing death hundreds of miles from land and the audacity of the men who risked their own lives to save them.

The naval aviation safety review.

On December 7, 1941, Japan devastated the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. While war had been raging in Europe and in Asia for years, this unprovoked attack drew the United States into the most disruptive and wasteful cataclysm in human historythe Second World War. While history books speak to the battles and historical figures pivotal to the outcome of the war, there were also ordinary peopleboth civilian and uniformedwho were propelled out of their comfort zones by unforeseen events and adventures. Paradise in Ruins is a historical novel that unleashes an eclectic cast of characters who, tired of being constantly overlooked in World War II histories, finally have a chance to speak. Combining together a cast of civilian men and women, naval and military officers, and Pacific Islanders with the stories of real historical figures, author Antwyn Prices extensive research provides a compelling, personal view into the struggles and irrevocably changed lives of the men and women in the Asia-Pacific region before, during, and after the war. Covering both the Nimitz and MacArthur campaigns from 1941 to 1946, stories about these lives will unfold from Canton Island to Sydney; from Pearl Harbor to Guam; from Espiritu Santo and Nouma to Guadalcanal and Bougainville; from New Guinea to the Philippines; and from Iwo Jima and Peleliu to Okinawa and Tokyo. Anyone curious about the Pacific War will be able to stitch the events together so that the geography, peoples, logistics, and strategies can be more easily understood.

Cursed with immortality and destroying fire, Aili Fallon will cross life and death to find the truth. Determined to escape her past, Aili refuses to let anything impede her training as a combat nurse. But when the woman she loves binds her with blood and disappears, Aili is transformed into a magical killer, a blood-bound healer, an immortal being. Gambling with her own existence, she crosses through phoenix gates into a new world. But when she is reunited with her lost love, she learns they have been pawns in an ancient game of immortals, the keystone in a demon's curse. Will Aili's newfound power and the secrets of her past destroy her, or can she and her beloved phoenix unravel the binding of life and death? The Phoenix and the Sword is the first book in the Crane Moon Cycle, a queer epic fantasy novel set in a world of spiritual powers, past lives, and beings of myth and legend. Unexpected, multilayered, and beautiful, The Phoenix and the Sword begins a tale of love and adventure that crosses centuries and worlds.

There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4, 1942, a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset, their vaunted carrier force (the Kido Butai) had been sunk and their grip on the Pacific had been loosened forever. In this absolutely riveting account of a key moment in the history of World War II, one of America's leading naval historians, Craig L. Symonds paints an unforgettable portrait of ingenuity, courage, and sacrifice. Symonds begins with the arrival of Admiral Chester A. Nimitz at Pearl Harbor after the devastating Japanese attack, and describes the key events leading to the climactic battle, including both Coral Sea--the first battle in history against opposing carrier forces--and Jimmy Doolittle's daring raid of Tokyo. He focuses throughout on the people involved, offering telling portraits of Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, Spruance and numerous other Americans, as well as the leading Japanese figures, including the poker-loving Admiral Yamamoto. Indeed, Symonds sheds much light on the aspects of Japanese culture--such as their single-minded devotion to combat, which led to poorly armored planes and inadequate fire-safety measures on their ships--that contributed to their defeat. The author's account of the battle itself is masterful, weaving together the many disparate threads of attack--attacks which failed in the early going--that ultimately created a five-minute window in which three of the four Japanese carriers were mortally wounded, changing the course of the Pacific war in an eye-blink. Symonds is the first historian to argue that the victory at Midway was not simply a matter of luck, pointing out that Nimitz had equal forces, superior intelligence, and the element of surprise. Nimitz had a strong hand, Symonds concludes, and he rightly expected to win.

A collection of eyewitness accounts of the Normandy landings that “gives you the [feeling] that you are there during the frenzied first hours of the invasion” (Kepler’s Military History Book Reviews). Many professional historians have recorded the actions of D-Day but here is an account of the airborne actions as described by the actual men themselves, in eyewitness detail. Participants range from division command personnel to regimental, battalion, company, and battery commanders, to chaplains, surgeons, enlisted medics, platoon sergeants, squad leaders and the rough, tough troopers who adapted quickly to fighting in mixed, unfamiliar groups after a badly scattered drop. And yet they managed to gain the objectives set for them in the hedgerow country of Normandy. This book is primary source material. It is a “must read” for anyone interested in the Normandy landings, the 101st Airborne Division, and World War II in general. Hearing the soldiers speak is an entirely different experience from reading about the action in a narrative history.

It was Sunday afternoon on December 7th at the home of Charles Reed. His wife, daughter and six year old son Chip hear the radio report that Pearl Harbor is under attack by Japanese planes. Charles learns days later his brother stationed at Wheeler Field was killed, which ignites an uncontrolled permanent hatred for the Japanese which his son Chip quickly inherits. Thirty six years later, Chip Reed, a senior airline pilot and successful real estate investor, loses his wife and son in a head on crash in her Japanese sports car hit by a Japanese pickup truck. A year later he buys a B-25, has it restored and named “Ruptured Duck. After the show, he is in a real dogfight with a Japanese pilot flying a Zero fighter from the show which blows up in his flight path causing severe damage to his plane and forced to crash land killing his best friend. While recuperating he learns his life will be cut short due to a blood disease. He makes plans to settle his grievances and hate for the Japanese and makes plans to have revenge with the Japanese automaker for killing his uncle, his wife and son and best friend. With his plane completely restored, he tells the Chinese Government he wants to take his plane of tour of China visiting the towns and cities the Doolittle Raiders escaped through. His plan was approved and he ships his plane to China to begin his mission to end his life flying into the auto maker in Tokyo who killed his family and best friend. Chip Reed will have to outsmart the Chinese and Japanese defense systems before he can reach Tokyo.

Now in one volume, the Godmaker Trilogy. Rudy Sullivan must follow the Godmakers if he wishes to protect his own life and the lives of those he loves. He has one ace-in-the-hole: the last play ever written by the old playwright, who might be a suicide or might have been murdered. He trails the two old men who claim they created all the gods as they take him from Italy to California to the North Pole, finally ending in the panhandle of Nebraska where an odd monument and a sleepy town somehow figure in the secret of the universe. The old man who claims to be Paul of Tarsus and travels in a creaky old plane with his friend, John the Baptist, has a knack for turning Rudy's life upside down, and in the process, conjuring up demons and danger. Rudy finds it hard to believe in Paul, but he finds it harder not to follow him. What he learns and sees on his journey will lead him to question not just his sanity, but his faith in God.