The Wrong Stuff : The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator [Paperback]

Truman Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2001

Between April and July 1944, Truman Smith Flew thirty-five bombing missions over France and Germany. He was only twenty years old. Although barely adults, Smith and his peers worried about cramming a lifetime s worth of experience into every free night, each knowing he probably would not survive the next bombing mission. Written with blunt honesty, wry humor, and insight, The Wrong Stuff is Smith s gripping memoir of that time. In a new preface, the author comments with equal honesty and humor on the impact this book has had on his life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Shelves in bookstores are filled with memoirs from the Second World War. Even so, few capture as vividly the danger, excitement, and stress of air combat as does Truman Smith s The Wrong Stuff. --Mark K. Wells, USAF Academy

If you thought gallantry and valor were the only stuff war is made of, think again. Truman Smiths The Wrong Stuff will let you know right away that the Hollywood version of war is just that: the stuff of good movies. He makes one statement which is not understood by anyone who has not served in combat: 'In order to out-bad the bad guys, you ve got to be badder than they are.' --Tulsa World

Writing bluntly and sometime profanely, Smith, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, talks honestly about his experiences, ventures that happened also to thousands of other Air Force veterans...If nothing else, the book proves that the nation s greatest resources are its young people, ready and willing to serve their country. --St. Joseph (MO.) News-Press

About the Author

Truman J. Smith is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society. In 1958 he founded the Air Force Radio-TV network, which reached Europe, North Africa, and the Near East.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806134224
• ISBN-13: 978-0806134222
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #335,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and Informative, January 28, 2001

By 

Rob Morris (Idaho Falls, ID United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wrong Stuff!: The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator (Paperback)

"The Wrong Stuff" by Truman Smith is a memoir by a former copilot on a B-17 in the US 8th Air Force. Mr. Smith blazes his own trails in this book. He doesn't pull any punches about some of the screw-ups made during the war that cost lives, or about his own thoughts about the fact that every man involved in the war is killing other human beings. The only way to beat a bad enemy is to be worse. Smith's tale is at times hilarious, at times tragic, but always entertaining. He tells it in a breezy, easy-to-read style with plenty of wry comments thrown in. Not only are the air battle scenes well-written, but accounts of his experiences at the air base in England, of his trips to London where his youth and inexperience hamper his attempts at finding girls, and of his visit to the 'Flak Farm' where he is sent to recuperate from the stress of wondering whether or not he'll survive the next mission. I thouroughly enjoyed this book. As a historian and author who is researching two books on the 8th AF in WWII, I found this book really went a long ways toward explaining not only the horrors of war in the air but how the war affected the young men who fought that air war. I recommend it highly.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Written - I Was There, August 11, 2000

By 

Bob Barney (Lakeside, Ca. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wrong Stuff!: The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator (Paperback)

LtCol USAF, Retired. Flew combat as Commander of B-17 Aircraft in World War II.

An Air Force friend sent me a copy of the WRONG STUFF. From the opening page, this book took me back to those war years, and kept me totally absorbed. It hit me like "a ton of bricks" when I discovered that Truman, and I, flew with the same 8th Air Force Group in England.

Upon reading Truman's Chapter 5, aptly titled "THE WORST," I discovered for the first time how I lost my plane and crew, while participating on a bombing mission to Berlin, Germany, on April 29, 1944. His vivid description of that raid kept me mesmerized, and it would take a great deal of writing for me to express the large number of superlatives this book deserves.

Chapter 5 is a book within a book. Only 6 ships of 30 in our group returned to home base, while the entire 8th AF lost 63 bombers on that raid alone. I thank God that my friend placed THE WRONG STUFF in my hands, for it enabled me to learn the details of the largest air battle in history. I was unable, for the most part, to view the battle, since I was fully engaged in formation flight. Truman was flying copilot in the highest of our 30 ship formation, and had an unobstructed view of all enemy aircraft, and the raging air battles. It is difficult to imagine such a frightening experience for Truman, a 20 year old copilot, as he peered out the right window of his aircraft, and spotted some 200 enemy aircraft, like a hive of bees, ready to swarm on our hapless group of 30 bombers, which had been carelessly led from the bomber stream. Somehow True survived, complete his tour of 35 missions, and luckily for us, remembered, in detail, the ingredients of this great book.

Truman describes aerial combat with excellence. His accounts of the fears and horrors in WW II aerial combat, is laced with a priceless sense of humor. He keeps the reader on the flight deck with him during each of his 35 missions, and one can almost

feel the thrills - and horror - of the air battles.

He provides us with some of his pleasure jaunts to London, elsewhere in England, and on the Continent as well. His description of those experiences offers a change of pace that is relaxing, enjoyable, and sprinkled with humor.

I found it difficult to lay the book aside, as did my wife, and other members of my family.

THE WRONG STUFF has understandably been selected as required reading this fall in The U.S. Air Force Academy History Class.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He captures it all., September 25, 2002

By 

Larry Sutton, LCDR, USN(ret.) (Umpqua, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wrong Stuff : The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator (Paperback)

One of the few things more exciting than reading Truman's book is meeting Truman himself. Yes there is a Ponca City and yes he does live there. As a veteran of our "conflict" in Viet Nam I had experienced many of the same emotions found in the book. I especially appreciated his discussions on the guilt of surving and of not doing enough. If you get a chance read the book, you won't be sorry. If you have been to war or thought about war you owe it to yourself to read this book. Thanks Mike, for introducing me to Truman, and thanks Truman, for writing the book.