“Remembering Forgotten Fliers, Their Survivors” republished in a new anthology from Potomac Books

Fighter pilots.

I’ve written about them often over the years. About their hell-raising good times at the Officers Club, living life to the fullest…on the edge of the envelope at a speed faster than the rest of us.

I’ve written about them at other times, too, when they have slowed down to a snail’s pace. When a hush goes over a squadron of men like a black veil because earth and sky have collided and one of their brothers isn’t coming home. A young wife is widowed, a child left fatherless, an older couple wandering around confused, their future of grandchildren and the good life destroyed in a fireball. “Weren’t we supposed to go first?” they ask.  

So when my essay “Remembering Forgotten Fliers, Their Survivors” first appeared in the pages of Air Force Times, March 16, 1992, I felt a sense of joy mixed with sadness. Joy because I was happy to have another byline in a national publication that treated me like a professional, but the sadness came from the fact that once again I had written about loss­­––the loss of fighter pilots dying in peacetime training missions. This subject would be the driving force behind my debut novel, The Final Salute, first published in 2008.

Fast-forward twenty-two years and the republication of my essay in a prestigious new anthology titled “Red, White, & True,” released from Potomac Books, an imprint of University of Nebraska Press. Edited by Tracy Crow, a former Marine Corp officer and an award-winning military journalist and author nominated for three Pushcart Prizes, this provocative and powerful collection presents thirty-two true stories about the enduring impact of U.S. military service from WWII to present. The writers include a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a novelist with a New York Times Notable book award for 2012, and a writer seeing his name in print for the first time.  

Today, I take pride in the fact that my story made the final cut as it “passed for review” in front of Tracy Crow and her editors at University of Nebraska Press. Sometimes my job as a writer is to give a voice to those who are no longer living. In my own small way, I help keep their legacies alive. In Chapter 3 on pages 16 -20 of “Red, White, & True,” I give a voice to the names of too many good men who flew west before their time.

 To order, please visit potomacbooksinc.com or call 800-775-2518

https://potomac.presswarehouse.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=394086

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Red-White-True-Veterans-Families/dp/1612347010/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1405365192&sr=8-5&keywords=Red%2C+White+and+True

Barnes and Noble online and in some bookstores around the country:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red-white-and-true-tracy-crow/1117434028?ean=9781612347011

BIO:

Kathleen M. Rodgers is the author of the award-winning novel, The Final Salute, featured in USA-Today, The Associated Press, and Military Times. The novel soared to #1 on Amazon's Top Rated War Fiction in 2012 and will be reissued by Deer Hawk Publications July 2014.

Her second novel, Johnnie Come Lately, is forthcoming from Camel Press, an imprint of Coffeetown Press, February 1, 2015.

Besides writing novels, her work has appeared in Family Circle Magazine, Military Times, Family: The Magazine for Military Families, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Albuquerque Journal, Clovis News Journal, Her War Her Voice, Spouse Buzz at Military.com, Women's Independent Press, and in the following anthologies: "Because I Fly," McGraw-Hill, "Lessons From Our Children," Health Communications, Inc., "Stories Of Faith And Courage On The Home Front," AMG Publishers, "Home of the Brave: Somewhere in the Sand," Press 53, and "Red, White and True," Potomac Books, an imprint of University of Nebraska Press.

She is a recipient of a Distinguished Alumna Award from Tarrant County College/NE Campus 2014. She lives in Colleyville, TX with her husband, a retired fighter pilot/commercial airline pilot, and their dog, Denton. Her oldest son is a graduate of UNT and resides in Denton with his partner, Brittany McDaniel. Her youngest son graduated from Texas Tech and is deployed to the Middle East.

Kathleen is working on a sequel to Johnnie Come Lately and is represented by Loiacono Literary Agency.