STARDUST FALLING

SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on the front free endpaper beneath a sticker that reads as follows: "To: Leo Freedom and | friendship are wonderful | gifts of God. We must always | protect and cherish them. | Wes Coss." 4to. (25 cm.) [14]1-385[5]p. Illustrated with 5 colored captioned photos (including one of Coss and his wife and one of "Shady Lady", a pin-up by Alice Marks) and 47 black and white captioned photos and one black and white map. Laid in are tow 3 x 5" cards advertising the book and the cut out address of Wes Coss. Color pictorial wrappers with a color photo of Coss on the rear panel. A couple of small dings to front wrapper, wrappers clean and bright, else fine with no internal markings This books chronicles the thrilling story of 20-year-old Wes Coss, a US Arny Air Corp pilot 1st Lt. whose powerful desire to fly set him on a collision course with history, In 1944 while piloting his B-17 "Stardust" Wes and his small crew were shot down by German fighters over Southern France. Aided by the French Resistance, Coss evaded capture only to tackle a harrowing winter crossing of the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain. Leo D. Hymas [1926-2016], a previous owner of this book, was Patriarch of the Everett Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was in the Army's 97th Infantry Division, serving in WWII for two years. Later in life he shared his war experiences as a concentration camp liberator, representing the Holocaust Center for Humanity. Hymas loved everything about flying. He shared ownership of a Great Lakes biplane which he flew to the Oshkosh fly-in and he worked in the aerospace industry and retired from Boeing.…