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Rating: 
Summary: How To Answer The Call At 30,000 Feet When It's 50 Below....
Review: ..And The Fighters Are Making Their Run. Gene Carson does an excellent job relating the fear of not knowing where the next flak round is going to burst, or on which mission his luck will run out. After their 10th. mission, the aircrews were living "on borrowed time". Death in a B-17 came either from the determined cannon of German fighter pilots, or the random blast of German Flak. It came from flying or bombing accidents or it came from walking across Poland and Germany for 75 days during the worst European Winter in a hundred years. You could bleed to death in your flying suit, pass out and die when you accidentally disconnected your oxygen supply, or ride a doomed bomber all the way down because the centrifugal force kept you pinned to the airplane a few feet away from an escape route. Some died on their first mission, and some on their 25th. Not many fought the Army bureaucracy to get BACK into combat flying after they honorably completed their first tour. Gene Carson did. He also stayed in the Army and went from "glamorflyboy" to "groundpounder" with the 82nd. Airborne Division. "Wing Ding" (and it's not the name of his airplane) gives us a look at the Carson brothers' lives from the time they were "half orphans" in a Pennsylvania trade school, to the point where Gene goes back for another tour after learning John has been shot down. After his brother was shot down, Gene Carson's war was no longer about surviving the requisite number of missions and going home. It was now about staying in the deadly game until he knew his brother was safe. Gene goes back without the slightest objective reason to believe John is alive, because they're brothers. The book has it's humerous moments, such as the manner in which Gene dealt with two different species of predator in the Florida Everglades. At a time when our nation is hungry for heroes, we often don't have to look any farther than the older guy living right next door. The "heroes" of my generation are too often a gratuitous, polished, packaged largely manufactured product. The heroes of Gene Carson's generaton were just glad they survived. They were indeed ordinary men who did extraordinary things. Carson's "Wing Ding" will go on my bookshelf next to my favorite first-person accounts of men in battle.
Rating:
Summary: How To Answer The Call At 30,000 Feet When It's 50 Below....
Review: ..And The Fighters Are Making Their Run. Gene Carson does an excellent job relating the fear of not knowing where the next flak round is going to burst, or on which mission his luck will run out. After their 10th. mission, the aircrews were living "on borrowed time". Death in a B-17 came either from the determined cannon of German fighter pilots, or the random blast of German Flak. It came from flying or bombing accidents or it came from walking across Poland and Germany for 75 days during the worst European Winter in a hundred years. You could bleed to death in your flying suit, pass out and die when you accidentally disconnected your oxygen supply, or ride a doomed bomber all the way down because the centrifugal force kept you pinned to the airplane a few feet away from an escape route. Some died on their first mission, and some on their 25th. Not many fought the Army bureaucracy to get BACK into combat flying after they honorably completed their first tour. Gene Carson did. He also stayed in the Army and went from "glamorflyboy" to "groundpounder" with the 82nd. Airborne Division. "Wing Ding" (and it's not the name of his airplane) gives us a look at the Carson brothers' lives from the time they were "half orphans" in a Pennsylvania trade school, to the point where Gene goes back for another tour after learning John has been shot down. After his brother was shot down, Gene Carson's war was no longer about surviving the requisite number of missions and going home. It was now about staying in the deadly game until he knew his brother was safe. Gene goes back without the slightest objective reason to believe John is alive, because they're brothers. The book has it's humerous moments, such as the manner in which Gene dealt with two different species of predator in the Florida Everglades. At a time when our nation is hungry for heroes, we often don't have to look any farther than the older guy living right next door. The "heroes" of my generation are too often a gratuitous, polished, packaged largely manufactured product. The heroes of Gene Carson's generaton were just glad they survived. They were indeed ordinary men who did extraordinary things. Carson's "Wing Ding" will go on my bookshelf next to my favorite first-person accounts of men in battle.
Rating:
Summary: Wing Ding
Review: Col. Carlson told his story without a lot of hype. He makes one feel like they are there. It is a pleasure that I had the chance to serve in the Air Force with such men who gave so much. We of that War are leaving at a fast rate. Such great stories are all that will be left too soon.
Rating:
Summary: Wing Ding
Review: Col. Carlson told his story without a lot of hype. He makes one feel like they are there. It is a pleasure that I had the chance to serve in the Air Force with such men who gave so much. We of that War are leaving at a fast rate. Such great stories are all that will be left too soon.
Rating:
Summary: Great True Story of How a Baker Became a Two-Tour Tailgunner
Review: I have recently finished reading Gene Carson's fine new book "Wing Ding". As a writer and historian researching books of my own, I have been spending a lot of time reading accounts of the heavy bomber war over Europe in WWII. This is by far the most entertaining of the memoirs I have read to date. Gene Carson, air enthusiast, joins the Army Air Corps to fullfill his dream to fly. Instead, he ends up in the kitchen as a baker. Through persistance, hard work, trickery and a little luck, he is able to trade his bakery job for the more exciting--and more deadly--duty of tail gunner on a B-17. Carson skillfully captures not just the moments of terror flying over Germany (in one case minus his parachute), but also the humor of life in the Eighth. Adding drama to the tale is the fact that Carson's twin brother is shot down and presumed dead while flying a mission with a different bomb group. Instead of going home, Gene gets himself reassigned and returns to fly a second tour of combat, convinced his brother is alive and that he will find him. To say more would detract from the reading experience, but this book is a great read, both from a historical perspective and for the interesting characters and situations 'Wing Ding' encounters on his adventures. A warning: Wing Ding has its share of earthy situations, the kind faced by young men far from home, lonely, with normal hormones, and unsure if they will live out the month. A PG-13 rating might be in order. Wing Ding is a winner in every way. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the history of the air war, or how young men grow up in wartime. I look forward to Gene Carson's next book, which is underway.
Rating:
Summary: Holds Your Interest!
Review: This book got my interest from the "Foreword"! If your loved one never told you what WWII was REALLY like, you will really enjoy/appreciate this book. You will go from "nah, that didn't really happen?" to "it really happened!". The author has a story like style for the real thing. It's not a book that goes on and on 'til you don't have time to read anymore. It gets right to the point and you'll want to know what happened next!
Rating:
Summary: A totally Unique Book!
Review: This is a TOTALLY unique book. I have never found another book on World War 2, much less concerning any other war, that has ever taken this approach to writing : that is, telling a true, and WONDERFULLY interesting account by an author, who happens to be a twin, and where the author's twin brother almost ends up being a co-author of this same work. What we have is a true account of 2 brothers who were separated by War, and then came back together during that War, and once again were separated, only to be BARELY re-united at the War's end, in May of 1945. The perspective of this book by LTC Gene Carson IS very unique, and lends itself not only to World War 2 studies, but to Twin studies, as well. I ought to know, for I am a twin like Gene and his brother, John. This book UNDOUBTEDLY deserves the 5 star rating for 3 reasons : a) It is well written and VERY lively & interesting! I hate needless parentheses. b) It is brisk, without a lot of the dull, turgid style found in some military narratives. Lots of nice, brief chapters that contain short but often VERY humorous vignettes. c) It's "twin-brother" perspective is unique and creates a storyline fit to be made into a motion picture. May I add that Gene has given the BEST account, among the many that I have read, about what LIFE (as well as Death) was like for those who flew in the heavy bombers, during the Darkest conflagration of War that the 20th century, or any century has ever seen.
Rating:
Summary: A totally Unique Book!
Review: This is a TOTALLY unique book. I have never found another book on World War 2, much less concerning any other war, that has ever taken this approach to writing : that is, telling a true, and WONDERFULLY interesting account by an author, who happens to be a twin, and where the author's twin brother almost ends up being a co-author of this same work. What we have is a true account of 2 brothers who were separated by War, and then came back together during that War, and once again were separated, only to be BARELY re-united at the War's end, in May of 1945. The perspective of this book by LTC Gene Carson IS very unique, and lends itself not only to World War 2 studies, but to Twin studies, as well. I ought to know, for I am a twin like Gene and his brother, John. This book UNDOUBTEDLY deserves the 5 star rating for 3 reasons : a) It is well written and VERY lively & interesting! I hate needless parentheses. b) It is brisk, without a lot of the dull, turgid style found in some military narratives. Lots of nice, brief chapters that contain short but often VERY humorous vignettes. c) It's "twin-brother" perspective is unique and creates a storyline fit to be made into a motion picture. May I add that Gene has given the BEST account, among the many that I have read, about what LIFE (as well as Death) was like for those who flew in the heavy bombers, during the Darkest conflagration of War that the 20th century, or any century has ever seen.
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