AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2024 - 46

BRIEFING
BOOKSHEL F /
An amazing life
Chuck Yeager: What a Ride!
GENER A L CHAR L ES " CHUCK " YE AGER
died in 2020. His second wife, of 17
years, Victoria D'Angelo Yeager, first
wrote about her husband's witticisms in
101 Chuck Yeagerisms ( " Bookshelf: Love
Story, " AOPA Pilot May 2023) but she had
so much more to tell about her life and
love with the first pilot to break the sound
barrier. In What a Ride! she tells personal
stories of the couple's life together,
pulled from her diaries. There are more
than 21 years of stories of flying, travel,
and personalities in this heartfelt book
dedicated to Yeager: " This book is dedicated
to my late great husband, General
Chuck Yeager, who always wanted to
write a book about us, but we were too
busy enjoying life to sit down and chronicle
it, so now here it is, in part. " A private
pilot, Victoria Yeager also shares photos
of the couple's flying life together in this
volume from The Right Stuff Publishing.
-Julie Summers Walker
chuckyeager.com
Wildfire
Mudslingers: A True Story of
Aerial Firefighting
" HERE'S THE THING most people don't
realize about fighting wildfires-the
job generally consists of the following:
Prolonged periods of boredom and
restlessness punctuated by bursts
of almost unfathomable intensity or
violence, " so writes Tim Sheehy in his
book on aerial firefighting. Blending
historical context and first-person
narrative, Sheehy tells a dramatic and
colorful story, one he knows well. As a
U.S. Naval Academy graduate, former
Navy SEAL, firefighting pilot, and the
founder of the Bozeman, Montanabased
aerial firefighting team Bridger
Aerospace, Sheehy provides firsthand
accounts of the war on wildfires in a
" rollicking read. " Proceeds from the
sale of Mudslingers are donated to the
Montana Firefighter Fund and the United
Aerial Firefighters Association. -JSW
Honor your father
Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima,
World War II, and a Flyer's Life
WR I TERS KEEP IDEAS for stories in their
heads for a long time before ever putting
them down on paper (or computer as
may be). For author Paul Hendrickson,
the story of his father, a combat pilot in
World War II who volunteered for night
fighters and the legendary P-61 Black
Widow, has played around in his mind
since his father's death in 2003. That a
25-year-old young man from Kentucky
would leave his wife and two young sons
to fight in battles previously unimagined,
kept Hendrickson from knowing
his father well until late in their lives.
Hendrickson, the award-winning
writer of Sons of Mississippi, The Living
and the Dead, and Hemingway's Boat, pays
tribute to the service of young men-and
the women who stayed home or traveled
with them-in a time of war. Fighting the
Night is " an intense and powerful story
of violence and love, forgiveness and loss,
fathers and sons. " And a son's quest to
know his father. -JSW
46
AOPA PILOT / August 2024
http://www.chuckyeager.com
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2024

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