Fire from the Sky: A Diary Over Japan (Hardback or Cased Book)

This is the story of the last few months of WWII in the Pacific, seen through the eyes of one man, a radio operator aboard a B29 Superfortress who kept a diary of 28 missions over Japan. The diary tells of the horrors of war. It was written in darkness, and often fear, with a pen-light during lonely hours confined for up to 18 hours at a time. Herb Greer our main author, 23 years old, frightened and sitting on up to 20,000 pounds of jellied gasoline (napalm), while blindly flying through constant flak bursts and fighter opposition. The plane is blacked out save the dull red glow of the instrument panels as they pass through the target area. Suddenly the most intense bright light floods the aircraft, blinding us - the tension in the aircraft shot up, hearts started beating a whole lot faster as we instantly realized that we were being singled out of the sky by a searchlight and were now firmly in the sights of air and ground fire, we were the main act, and center stage. From that moment everything went into slow motion as we pass through the target - seconds felt like minutes and minutes, hours. BOOM, an explosion, the plane rocks, bucks, flak is searing its way through the fragile fabric of the fuselage, loose items are flying around, I'm scared - they say you can taste fear - well they're absolutely right.

This personal view gives us two perspectives, the first is the story of Herb Greer speaking to us aboard a B29 through the written entries of his diary and then the second recounted from his armchair 60 years later.

Written with an immediacy that can only be shared by those who were there, while capturing for posterity their bravery and dignity of sacrifice.

Ron Greer attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville prior to his military duty in the US Air Force. He served in the Vietnam War and later spent twenty-five years in human resources management. Greer lived with his father, Herb, as caregiver until his father's death in 2007. Herbert L. Greer was born in Chelan, Washington and married Hazel Jean Ozbirn from Salem, Arkansas July 16, 1944. They were married going on 50 years upon her passing April 23, 1993. They had two children Linda Diane Greer and Ronald Lyndon Greer. His career in the military spanned some 23 years and put him aboard such aircraft as the B-17, B-24, B-29, B-36, B-52 and B-47 while at Little Rock Air Force Base Jacksonville, Arkansas where he retired. Mike Wicks was born in London, England and spent a large part of his career in the publishing industry. He currently lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada with his wife Sheila and a manic cat, Phoebe. He is a writer for hire and loves nothing more than to help people bring life to their book ideas. This is his third book.