From the Farm to the Cockpit: The Log of a B-24 Co-pilot

A young man in West Virginia is thrust onto the world stage when America enters the Second World War. He and his best friend enlist and join the Army where they learn to fly heavy bombers. Barely out of high school, he and his friend fly from flight school in Topeka, Kansas, halfway across the world to Italy, where, from 1944 to 1945, they fly large formation missions into Germany, until Germany surrenders and the war in the European Theater ends. For reasons of his own, that young man, Charles "Chuck" Haynes, decides to keep a log, a diary if you will, of his day-to-day life as a B-24 co-pilot. Writing in the pages of service tablets he buys at the Army Post Exchange (PX), his gift for writing turns his experiences into a chronicle of a young man's life flying heavy bombers; doing his part to win a war against Nazi Germany, while facing his own mortality every time his plane leaves the ground. As you read the pages of his log, his direct, yet eloquent writing will take you on a journey he made some seventy years ago-a journey he didn't ask for, but nevertheless had to see through. You'll experience, through his eyes, the excitement of combat, the routine of life at an aviation airfield and the perils of two bailouts into enemy territory. His experiences in a world-spanning war changed his life in ways he never imagined and they will leave an indelible impression on your own.