A Bucket of Prop Wash: Memoirs of the Author

Agruff voice startled me and I saw the shine of the Negro brakeman's facelooking up at me from the ground."Hey,whut you doin' there, whiteboy?" "I'mgoing to ride this train as far away as I can." Thatwas the night I hopped a train, left Mississippi, the cotton fields, and the heavy hand of mystepfather. ¿I'd had enough of that backbreaking life of poverty and abuse. June1917, war had been declared with Germany. ¿It's November1918 and I am a soldier, a man, and I am heading for the front lines. Now,27 years later, I was again going into battle. I was in a flying fortresswatching our airborne army envelope the German side of the Rhine.Flying at 700 feet loaded only with camera equipment our B-17 was an easytarget. Suddenly, a motor burst into flames, we're hit! A career soldier's story of "both" world wars, hismarriage to the voluptuous unfaithful Beau, his affair with Elenora,a secret, and a big decision.