@article{916333,
      recid = {916333},
      author = {Schneck, Ralph H., and Schneck, Donald R.},
      title = {Cheerio and best wishes : letters from a World War II  Hoosier pilot /},
      publisher = {Purdue University Press,},
      address = {West Lafayette, Ind. :},
      pages = {1 online resource (xiii, 481 pages) :},
      year = {2013},
      abstract = {This is the true story of a young boy from Posey County,  Indiana, who had a dream to fly. The outbreak of World War  II enabled him to fulfill that dream. Cheerio and Best  Wishes is told entirely through the letters he wrote to his  family and friends. Detailed narrative and commentary  provide explanation and background information. One hundred  thirty-eight letters are presented in this book. It is  highly unusual to find this many letters from one person,  curated by his family and recently rediscovered by his son,  along with carefully created photograph albums. The story  starts in rural southern Indiana and follows the young  volunteer as he goes westward to California and New Mexico  to be trained to fly bombers. From the United States, he  travels via South America and North Africa to England and  deploys with the Eighth Air Force. The accounts of his  journeys and experiences are detailed, ranging from  entertaining to spine-tingling. Moments of high drama  intermingle with the mundane nature of war. Together the  letters and pictures in this book (the originals are now  preserved for posterity in the Purdue University Flight  Archives) offer a comprehensive and cohesive story of how  US airmen were prepared and trained for war, and detail the  daily experience of a bomber pilot flying missions over  Germany. The letters of one young flyer reflect the  experience of thousands of Americans who volunteered to go  to war in the 1940s. His experiences were those of a  generation.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/916333},
}