I Came Through Swell Paperback - 2013

From the publisher

Chauncey "Speed" Nelson always knew he wanted to be a pilot. Growing up on a farm, he spent his days dreaming of his plans to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, or to just buy a plane of his own if that didn't work out. But when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Speed found his purpose in life-a bomber pilot for the U.S. Air Corps, flying for his country. Through his own journals, interviews with his contemporaries, and his daughter's journals, join Speed for the fear-and adventure-of a lifetime, from his first training days to twenty-eight of his forty terrifying and thrilling missions flown out of Italy. Experience the terror of bailing out of a burning plane only to end up in a POW camp-and yet being able to look back, years later, and declare "I came through swell." These personal experiences come through in the context of history-the details, targets, and strategic importance behind each mission, illustrating the complete picture of what it was really like to be a pilot during the war and lead his crew on missions. Though Speed did survive the war, it was not something he liked to speak about. Fifteen years after his death, his daughter Barbara decided to take on the project of piecing together the whole story. Throughout the fascinating journey, Barbara discovered a young man she never knew-a whole new side to her father and his past, and the powerful way his intelligence and optimism influenced his life during the war and his ability to fly-and lead-missions. In the process, she learned more about herself and her own history, and she shares her own journal entries here. Ultimately, through this fascinating personal account of the war Barbara shows the reader that every family has stories worth telling.

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