Wake Island Pilot: A World War II Memoir - Hardcover

Kinney, John F.; McCaffrey, James M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1574880357 ISBN 13: 9781574880359

Publisher: Brassey's Inc, 1995

Synopsis

Wake Pilot is the story of John F. Kinney - hero, POW escapee, and aviation pioneer. It contains the first full-length account of a successful escape by a Marine captured in one of the great battles of World War II.
Within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese struck the small U.S. garrison on Wake Island. As his squadron's engineering officer, young pilot John F. Kinney used all his considerable ingenuity to oversee the cannibalization of crippled planes for spare parts - when he himself was not in the air fighting off the Japanese assault. His gallant efforts helped enable the desperate Marine and Navy defenders to hold out for an incredible two weeks, a truly epic struggle.
After the island's inevitable surrender, Kinney was a Japanese prisoner in China for the next three and a half years. During this time, he put his amazingly inventive mechanical skills to work, creating from scratch numerous items to improve his fellow POWs' situation, including a radio. Toward the end of the war, Kinney escaped from a prison train and, with the assistance of both Nationalist and Communist Chinese troops, made his way to an American airfield. He was thus one of the very few Americans to escape from Japanese captivity outside the Philippines. General Kinney's subsequent Marine Corps career was equally distinguished: He flew fighters in the Korean War and helped develop the classic A4-D Skyhawk.

About this title

From the Publisher:

The "gripping and exciting" (Publishers Weekly) story of a captured young marine pilot who survived more than three years in Japanese prison camps before escaping.

About the Author:

John F. Kinney retired as a brigadier general in 1959 after twenty years of service in the Marine Corps. His decorations include the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross and thirteen Air Medals.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brassey's Inc
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1574880357
• ISBN 13: 9781574880359
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200