Customer Reviews

Angels Twenty: A Young American Flier a Long Way from Home

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Back in 1977, Edwards Park published the sparkling "Nanette", a fictionalized account of his days as a neophyte P-39 pilot in New Guinea. "Angels Twenty" could almost be considered the non-fiction companion volume. There is no shortage of action-packed fighter combat oral histories on today's shelves, and readers interested in combat anecdotes of the P-39 and P-47 may be appeased by this book, if not sated. Yet Mr. Parks offers something more, well, soulful -and wrly humorous. The author is a gifted story-teller, and the perspective he offers may be one unfamiliar to the public: The anti-hero fighter pilot. The author's adventurous journey from uncertain tyro to capable veteran is refreshing and memorable (an underlying theme seems to reflect a great truth: In the flying business, there is little that is more satisfying than earning the respect of your peers). I was completely absorbed by the mirthy and genuine "Angels Twenty". I was left feeling as though I'd just finished hearing Mr Parks recount his tale fireside. I was also reminded of the closing words to the introduction to "Nanette": "That was the way we were". Mr. Parks' work is eminently enjoyable, and could perhaps offer insight to my largely untried generation.

By Parks own admission, the memories are hazey, and are patched together in this vague account of an American fighter pilot operating out of Port Moresby and later inland New Guinea. Stumbling along, he recalls "soirees" over the hills and mountains, the ocassional dogfight encounter and the bad landings on roughly made airstrips. An easy read, though not truly compulsive, but appealing to anyone interested in the subject.