I genuinely can't believe it's almost here. 6 days until Bird Men: The Rise of American Airpower and the Machine That Ended WWII arrives. Still kind of in disbelief.

Pre-order link in comments!!
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This photo captures the moment a plan got made that would help end a war. Hap Arnold and FDR at Casablanca, 1943, where "The Combined Bomber Offensive" took shape. Hitler had it coming. Photo: Robert and Kathleen Arnold Collection.

Out Oct 20.
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Hap Arnold with flying crews in North Africa, 1942. Desert living was hard living, but these flyboys had one job: defeat the Nazis and win the war. Photo: Robert and Kathleen Arnold Collection.

Out Oct 20.
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One of the most photographed rooms of the 20th century, Stalin, FDR, Churchill at Tehran, 1943. Look closer: Hap Arnold stands in back, second from left. His WWII diaries were some of the best source material I've worked with.

Bird Men, out Oct 20.
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Arnold (left) in pilot gear, c. 1911, with Orville Wright (center). This moment shows up in Chapter 2 of Bird Men. Wild to think this is where it all started, learning to fly from one of the two brothers who invented flight.
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Photo courtesy of the Robert and Kathleen Arnold...

Two true heroes of the sky: Hap Arnold (left) and Jimmy Doolittle, circa 1942. Together they hatched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, one of the most famous bombing raids ever. Read about it in BIRD MEN. (Photo: Robert and Kathleen Arnold Collection)
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The father of the American Air Force with Hedy Lamarr, screen star and inventor of a radio guidance system during WWII. Notice Arnold's Four Stars. He soon added a fifth, and is the only USAF General to wear Five Stars. Read it in BIRD MEN. (Photo: Robert and Kathleen Arnold Collection)
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One man watched aviation go from wooden biplanes to nuclear weapons, in the middle of it the entire time. Hap Arnold, father of the American Air Force, training with the Wright Brothers c.1911-12. His story is at the center of Bird Men.
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Colonel Caesar Rodriguez shot down 3 enemy aircraft. Something he told me stuck with me: his name's on the plane, but it takes a whole team. He called it the "fingerprints of a mission." That's how I feel about my new book BIRD MEN. So much gratitude!
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General Arnold, the Father of the Air Force, with Ike and with Gen. Omar Bradley on the beach at Normandy, June 12, 1944, six days after D-Day. Read about it in BIRD MEN. (Photos courtesy of the Robert and Kathleen Arnold Collection.)
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