“A Special D-Day” print showing P-47 4K Z is a plane from the 506th fighter squadron, 404th Fighter Group based at USAAF Station 414, an advanced landing ground at Winkton, Hampshire, England between April 5th and July 4th 1944. Z was a P-47 D6 serial 274624 and was a pool aircraft flown by several pilots in that period. Lt Welgoss is a probable candidate as pilot but the 506th with 25 P-47s on its strength, flew four missions that day each of 16 aircraft, and Z would probably have flown at least two of them.”

Thank you for visiting the site and the comment, John. It’s a real thrill for me to know that someone takes the time to join me in appreciation for the underlying concept of this series.

Tosh

- Rich Cook, author

This is the second time a visitor with a personal connection to events in WWII has contacted me with a correction to a post. The first was in relation to “Koga’s Zero,” originally published by Jim Reardon, and it involves the identity of the captain of the Naval vessel that transported the Zero to California for flight testing. I would be honored to receive copies of the two photos you mention and correct the caption in the post.

I have also contacted the author of the original slide show with the information you provided. He and I flew F-4′s together in the mid-1970s.

Thanks again,

Tosh

-Anthony Plattsmier
EAA Chapter 187 President
“Always Learning”

An inter-stellar spaceship is exploring the far reaches of distant galaxies looking for other intelligent life so they can contact it and share ideas, technology, and all accumulated knowledge.

One of the crew tells the commander that they’ve found a gorgeous planet and deployed the “sphere,” which is a device that surrounds a planet and instantly gathers its complete history, geological, archeological, social, cultural, etc. He offers the commander the report so that he can decide whether to stop and make contact with the inhabitants.

The commander reads the report, hands it back to the crew member, and says, “That species is composed of idiots. Let’s continue looking.”

It’s hard to express how gratifying it is to receive a comment like this. If you’re a writer, you know as well or better than I how lonely the process is, how much you want readers at the very least not to be disappointed in your work, and hopefully to be entertained by it. With my novels, an additional stumbling block is the requirement to walk a very thin line between overwhelming the non-aviator with too much detail, and leaving the pilot-reader wishing for more.

Red Line has been delayed by my commitment to a fellow writer to help her with her first novel. I scrubbed her draft manuscript, converted it to the two eBook formats for the Kindle and all other e-readers, designed the layout for the paperback, and did the covers for the eBook and paperback. My mistake during that process was in not spending a little time each day with Red Line to keep the “pilot light” on so the book didn’t get too cold. When the time came to get back into it, I have to admit that I’d lost some confidence in my ability to finish it.

And finally, to answer your question, I completed the first draft two weeks ago. As I write this, I’m in the process of revising the second draft. My objective is to have it completed before the first March meeting of a writers’ critique group I host at my house. We will go through the novel in four weekly installments, I’ll record their comments, incorporate them in April and publish the book before the end of the month. That may be an optimistic goal, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Thanks again for your comment, Jim, and I hope you won’t be a stranger to the site.

Best regards.

Tosh