Luzon Pilot

by Sky Phillips

The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Then they bombed Clark Air Field on Luzon Island in the Philippines and the Battle of Bataan began. For twenty-one-year-old Lt. Jim Davis this was his first glimpse of war. With other pilots of the U.S. Air Corps's 20th and 21th Pursuit Squadrons, Jim took to the air. Most of the American planes were destroyed that day. The survivors, Jim among them, moved to the southern end of the Bataan pennisula and continued the fight. During the four months leading to the fall of Bataan, Jim witnessed the heroism of the men and women who fought to defend Bataan. Though Jim is fictional, the events and most of the other people in the story are not. Rations were cut, medicine was scarce and disease rampant. Through it all the indomitable spirit of the American and Filipino defenders endured.

436 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 2012

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on the fall of Bataan in 1941-42 from the perspective of a fighter pilot who grew up in Manila as a member of a socially-politically-militarily connected family. Unfortunately, the book simply and abruptly ends with "he was now a prisoner". Even though he survived the Bataan death march, there is nothing about the time following his capture