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ONE MORE
MISSION: A JOURNEY FROM CHILDHOOD TO WAR is an autobiography by Jesse Pettey
that is a captivating narrative of the adventures of a young boy who grows
up to become a military pilot in World War II and his observations of a
deadly air war from the cockpit of a B-24 heavy bomber. It will hold
readers spellbound who are interested in history or those who just simply
enjoy reading about an adventurous young boy who lived during a time that
few can now remember.
The author
wrote, "Between my fifth and seventeenth birthday, the Great Depression
raged, molding the character and attitudes of my generation. We observed
and felt the sting of austerity, hardships, misfortunes, and despair during
the decade of the thirties, followed by World War II that brought about more
misery and destruction. I grew up in those two decades of instability that
molded my life. When I was five years old, the complete collapse of the
stock market began. Almost everywhere one looked, there was evidence of
suffering: people standing in line waiting to receive food being distributed
by various agencies, men standing in line to apply for scarce employment,
and if they were fortunate enough to have a job, they often worked at
undignified tasks. Classmates in school wore second-hand patched clothes,
and most tragic of all, there were many stunted, malnourished children.
Yet, I enjoyed a happy childhood full of exciting adventures. My father
worked for a utility company that supplied electricity, an essential
commodity, to Nacogdoches County and provided him with stable employment;
therefore, we did not suffer the hardships that many farm families
experienced during the depression.”
The author
wrote of enlisting in the Army Air Corps at age 18 and becoming a flight
cadet. He described his flight training in various aircraft, his graduation
from the cadet program as a Second Lieutenant pilot in 1944. After serving
a short time as a pilot instructor, he was transferred to a training center
in Tonopah, Nevada and assigned the position of copilot with a B-24
Liberator bomber flight crew.
From Tonopah,
the author wrote, he and his crew were ordered to fly a new B-24 that would
later be christened THE SHADY LADY, from San Francisco, by way of New
Foundland, the Azores, Marrakech, Morocco and Tunis to the 461st Bombardment Group
located at Torretta Field near Cerignola, Italy. From his memory and notes, he describes in
detail his 35 bombing missions over Northern Italy, Austria, Germany,
Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Greece, and France. During these missions, he
survived severe damage to his aircraft from anti-aircraft shells and German
fighter airplanes for which he was awarded a DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS and
four AIR MEDALS.
The author
continued to write of his experiences flying cargo with MATS (Mediterranean
Air Transport Service) to various airfields in Europe, Eastern Europe, and
mid-eastern countries after completing his tour of combat missions. It was
while stationed in Naples that he met and fell in love with a pretty Italian
girl. October 3, 1945 they were married by a military chaplain at the
Capodichino Air Base in Naples. His humorous description of their
courtship, their honeymoon and her subsequent passage a year later from
Naples to New York on the Algonquin will surely amuse and entertain the
reader. The Algonquin was a U. S. Navy hospital ship equipped to care for
800 sea sick pregnant war brides.
for a 15% discount
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