A Paper Statue

Lt. Lee Marks, a Fifth Air Force P-38 pilot, tastes the blend of excitement and fear as he enters the air war over 1944 New Guinea. In a campaign where the weather claims as many pilots as the Japanese, Marks must quickly learn the idiosyncrasies of both if he is to survive. A rapid succession of air victories confirms his preparation for combat. But nothing in his training has prepared him for duty under Major Mo Brennan. A triple ace, Brennan manipulates his men and the system as efficiently as he eliminates the enemy. Becoming his leader's Exec, Lee Marks finds himself torn between what works and what is right, what the future might bring--and what he must sacrifice to find out. And he learns along the way that sometimes an airman's toughest battles are fought on the ground. The rousing story traces the Allied course of action in the unique New Guinea campaign, and it explores the war, the men who make the war, and the natives who find themselves the hosts. The novel is sprinkled with GI humor, the uplifting ingredient that kept it all together, and it pays tribute to that highly sophisticated piece of engineering, Lockheed's P-38 Lightning.