cover image In My Sights: The Memoir of A P-40 Ace

In My Sights: The Memoir of A P-40 Ace

James B. Morehead. Presidio Press, $24.95 (380pp) ISBN 978-0-89141-634-0

Few Americans have heard of retired air force colonel Morehead. He is, nevertheless, among the legions of quiet heroes who served with distinction in WWII. How he progressed from a Depression-era farmboy to a Pacific theater ace who downed eight enemy aircraft forms the subject of this engrossing memoir. Absent overt braggadocio, the book instead concentrates on the overall scope of life in a wartime military, where the author just happens to perform acts of great skill and heroism. During one confusing battle against the vaunted Japanese Zeros, for instance, Morehead's aircraft stalls out shortly after his windshield is covered with oil from another disabled aircraft. Blinded, Morehead somehow evades a direct attack and restarts his plane to continue the battle. Elsewhere, the former country boy methodically stalks and destroys a marauding Zero. A good storyteller, Morehead injects his narrative with other eye-popping anecdotes. While stationed in Australia, one of his squadron mates embarks on a mission while carrying an undetected passenger--a poisonous snake that bites the pilot, with harrowing results. Replete with such episodes, this book should do much to further the mystique of heroic WWII aviators. Two maps, 20 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)