{"product_id":"2940148669500","title":"Into the Land of Darkness: A Bombardier-Navigator's Story","description":"On a cold December morning in 1952, young Lt. Arthur L. Haarmeyer reported for duty in \u003cbr\u003eKorea as a B-26 bombardier-navigator to Colonel Delwin D. Bentley, Commander, 95th Bomb \u003cbr\u003eSquadron, 17th Bomb Group, K-9 Air Force Base, Pusan. Haarmeyer was immediately \u003cbr\u003echallenged by the colonel: “You’ve got an MBA … from a high-priced university. You could be \u003cbr\u003eriding a desk at the Pentagon right now. So why the hell are you here?” His reply—“I always \u003cbr\u003ewanted to be here, sir. I can be an accountant later”—was apparently convincing. But over the \u003cbr\u003enext seven months, flying fifty missions, mostly low-level nighttime bombing and strafing raids \u003cbr\u003eover mountainous North Korea, there were many times when he had reason to question the sanity \u003cbr\u003eof both his response and his decision. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost of Haarmeyer’s combat missions were single-ship sorties flown during hours of darkness \u003cbr\u003ewith his crew, with the others being daylight formation bombing missions with his crew or as \u003cbr\u003elead bombardier for Colonel Bentley. In this book Haarmeyer recalls with clarity and economy \u003cbr\u003eof style just what it was like to fly these missions. He puts the reader in the B-26, flying into \u003cbr\u003edeep valleys to find and attack communist freight trains and truck convoys carrying men and \u003cbr\u003emateriel to the front lines, and then unexpectedly caught in the sudden and blinding glare of \u003cbr\u003eenemy searchlights that triggered multiple streams of deadly and upward-arcing green or white \u003cbr\u003etracers. And he recalls instances of agony, guilt, and terror, such as the times when the flak was \u003cbr\u003eso heavy on all sides that he was unable to advise his pilot to “break right” or “break left”—so \u003cbr\u003etheir B-26 just simply plowed straight through it, or the times they flew low enough for \u003cbr\u003eHaarmeyer to see through the Plexiglas of the nose compartment the terrified faces of the young \u003cbr\u003eNorth Korean soldiers they were targeting. He also recalls moment of breathtaking beauty and \u003cbr\u003epoignancy, and it is this artful juxtaposition that makes Haarmeyer's work more than just another \u003cbr\u003ewartime memoir. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlthough Haarmeyer left the Air Force upon completion of his four years of military \u003cbr\u003eservice, the recurring and troubling memories of Korea never left him. Hence, the start of this \u003cbr\u003emanuscript fifty years after the restoration of freedom to the people of the Republic of Korea. \u003cbr\u003eJust as telling these stories was therapeutic for the author, so reading them will be healing for any \u003cbr\u003ereader who is a veteran of that or any war, as well as their family members and friends. The book \u003cbr\u003ealso provides a valuable perspective on the United Nations Command’s tactical approach to \u003cbr\u003eKorea, namely, the aerial interdiction of North Korean troops and materiel, and so it will be of \u003cbr\u003einterest to students of the war, as well as military personnel and historians.","brand":"Arthur Haarmeyer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47084285001968,"sku":"2940148669500","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940148669500_p0.jpg?v=1763706185","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940148669500","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}