Cheap The Wrong Stuff : The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator (Book) (Truman Smith) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of The Wrong Stuff : The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator

Very, very occasionally one finds a literary jewel and a treat lies in store. "THE WRONG STUFF" by Truman J.Smith is one such. You don^Rt have to know what a B17 is or be interested in the Air War in Europe to read this book. This is an incredibly moving human story, told with great eloquence and humor, of a young man, twenty years old, thrown in at the deep end of a murderous war who, fifty years later, has the incredible gift of being able to pass on to the rest of us the feeling of "being there."

And so we can all experience as never before the hardships on the ground and pre-mission nerves, the terrors unfolding all around at 25,000 feet watching new found friends hurtling to their deaths and knowing that the next shell could have your name on it. Relaxing on leave in London, laughing and searching for any diversions to pass the time until the next mission. They had to cram a lifetime's experiences into a few months because for tens of thousands of them there was no future.

I have tried but find it difficult to compare it with anything. This book made me laugh and brought a lump to my throat. It is just the best book dealing with the air war that I have ever read and should be required reading in schools so that the younger generation can appreciate the debt they owe to Truman J. Smith and his like.

Enjoyable and Informative
"The Wrong Stuff" by Truman Smith is a memoir by a former copilot on a B-17 in the US 8th Air Force. Mr. Smith blazes his own trails in this book. He doesn't pull any punches about some of the screw-ups made during the war that cost lives, or about his own thoughts about the fact that every man involved in the war is killing other human beings. The only way to beat a bad enemy is to be worse. Smith's tale is at times hilarious, at times tragic, but always entertaining. He tells it in a breezy, easy-to-read style with plenty of wry comments thrown in. Not only are the air battle scenes well-written, but accounts of his experiences at the air base in England, of his trips to London where his youth and inexperience hamper his attempts at finding girls, and of his visit to the 'Flak Farm' where he is sent to recuperate from the stress of wondering whether or not he'll survive the next mission. I thouroughly enjoyed this book. As a historian and author who is researching two books on the 8th AF in WWII, I found this book really went a long ways toward explaining not only the horrors of war in the air but how the war affected the young men who fought that air war. I recommend it highly.

He captures it all.
One of the few things more exciting than reading Truman's book is meeting Truman himself. Yes there is a Ponca City and yes he does live there. As a veteran of our "conflict" in Viet Nam I had experienced many of the same emotions found in the book. I especially appreciated his discussions on the guilt of surving and of not doing enough. If you get a chance read the book, you won't be sorry. If you have been to war or thought about war you owe it to yourself to read this book. Thanks Mike, for introducing me to Truman, and thanks Truman, for writing the book.