Flying High - World War II Letters
to and from U.S. Army Air Force Bases
and the Home Front
by
Eleanor Payne Yowell

These World War II letters exchanged between Pinky and me from November 1942 to September 1944 are above all a tribute to Pinky for the sheer courage he displayed at all times in Aviation Cadet training and as a command pilot of the B-24 and B-17 in training and in combat in the U.S. Eighth Air Force.
Secondly, they portray a period in history that has been more fully recognized and understood in the last few years as being the most important era of the 20th century.
In Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation, he observed that “This generation was united not only by a common purpose, but also by common values - duty, honor, economy, courage, service, love of family and country, and above all, responsibility for oneself. They answered the call to help save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs.”
Thirdly, these letters in book form are a permanent legacy which Pinky, in his role in World War II, left for his children as well as his grandchildren and great-grandchildren who never had the privilege of knowing him.

Contents

Feel the stress as Aviation Cadet Pinky Yowell sweated out the demanding training necessary for turning raw material into able pilots.

Witness one of the countless war-time weddings as Pinky and Ella were married one Saturday night at Maxwell Air Force Chapel. As the strains of the wedding march filled the chapel, training bombers roared overhead.

See how busy a war bride could be - holding down a job, rolling surgical bandages, planting a victory garden, and dispatching letters and care packages to the “Red Eagle” as Pinky was dubbed at the post office.

Fly a combat mission with Pinky in a B-24 over Germany, dodging the ever-present flak and praying that “Buzztail” would make it back safely.

On the home front feel the tension of just how important mail was, especially around D-Day when all mail to and from England was held up.

Grieve with the whole town when the news broke that so many Bedford boys were lost on Omaha Beach during the D-Day Invasion.

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Born and raised in Bedford, Virginia, a small rural town of 3,200 people, William Andrew “Pinky” Yowell, Jr. and Eleanor “Ella” Payne Yowell were products of the Great Depression, growing up as teenagers in the 1930s. This collection of World War II letters between them reveals significant insights into the lives and times of a young couple caught up in adapting their ordinary way of life to the cause of winning a world war that threatened their own country as well as their very existence and personal dreams for the future. Many decades passed before Ella dug these letters out of Pinky’s foot locker, untied the ribbons and began reading. Time had never stopped, not even for Pinky’s stint in the Korean War, their son’s year in Vietnam or Pinky’s premature death. Psalm 30:5 states it well, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

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Eleanor Yowell still lives in Bedford, Virginia. She stays active with her gardening, arthritis class and swimming at the YMCA, and walking the lower trails of the Peaks of Otter and surrounding area. She has two children, six grandchildren, and four great-granddaughters.

"Better than fiction!"
A book to read and reread or give to a friend.

Many photos.   9x6
Cloth hardcover   166 pages.   Price $20.00