Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer’s Life

Biographer Hendrickson (Plagued by Fire) offers an intimate exploration of the life and military career of his father, U.S. Army Air Corps pilot Joe Hendrickson (1918–2003). Probing his family’s history of violence, the author searches for the root of his father’s anger and frustration, which was worsened by wartime PTSD. Born in rural Kentucky and forced to leave home at 19 to ease his family’s financial burden during the Great Depression, Joe joined the Army four years before Pearl Harbor. He trained as a pilot and eventually flew the P-61 Black Widow, the first U.S. aircraft designed as a night fighter. In March 1945, less than a month after the capture of Iwo Jima, with pockets of Japanese resistance still lingering on the island, his squadron was assigned to fly nightly raids from Iwo Jima against nearby Japanese-held islands. Four days after their arrival, the remnants of the Japanese Army launched a desperate nighttime attack, killing six members of the squadron while Joe and others were holed up in a tent, armed only with pistols. The resulting carnage stayed with him for the rest of his life, though he rarely discussed it. Hendrickson closely and sinuously narrates the painstaking process of piecing together his father’s wartime exploits and life story. Coupling a poignant personal journey with propulsive aviation action, this WWII history flies high. (May)