Status Updates From The German Aces Speak

I am struck in the intro by how either naive or brainwashed the author of this book was. He goes out of his way to claim that these pilots that he became friends with weren't NAZIs and that they were just defending their country - ignoring that they were highly decorated by the NAZIs, clearly did not do anything to bring themselves to the attention of the Gestapo and that their country was the aggressor.