Book Review: Lightning Sky: A U.S. Fighter Pilot Captured During WWII and His Father’s Quest to Find Him

I cannot even begin to imagine. Lightning Sky: A U.S. Fighter Pilot Captured during WWII and His Father’s Quest to Find Him is the story of David MacArthur. MacArthur was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He flew the P-38 Lightning and was shot down on a strafing mission over Greece. His story as told by R.C. George is riveting.

Lightning Sky is 290 pages long. George has arranged the 27 chapters into three parts. The first part focused on MacArthur’s training as a fighter pilot. The second part focused on his captivity in the hands of the Germans. The last part told of his exploits in the Korea War.

While the majority of the book focused on MacArthur’s experiences as a POW, Lightning Sky began with MacArthur surrounded in Korea by invading Chinese. The end of the book returns to the story. I am happy to say that the story was successful. For his heroic actions, MacArthur received the Distinguished Service Cross. The Distinguished Service Cross is the second-highest military award that can be given to a member of the United States Army for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force.

George drafted the main narrative of Lightning Sky based on “interviews, journals, letters, photographs, books, articles, and other reliable records, governmental and otherwise” (George, 2019, p. xiii). I was appreciative of the narrative created. It really captured the events.

I will not go into the story because I believe you should read it first hand. I will say that it is worth reading.

I have greater respect for an aircraft that I knew existed but I was unaware of how much of a role it had in World War II. The aircraft I am speaking about is the P-38, Lightning. The P-38 was a workhorse in terms of photo-reconnaissance and ground attack. It was also a superb fighter. Here is a wonderful set of videos about this aircraft.

The other thing that I walked away with after reading this book is how cruel the Nazis really were. The more I read about the conduct of the Nazis, the more I am convinced that we can not let this happen again. Unfortunately, it seems our nation of all nations is on a dangerous path. I will do my part to prevent this from taking shape. This level of cruelty is not something I want to see in my lifetime.

If you are interested in World War II history, I am confident that you will find Lightning Sky as fascinating as I did.

Additional Reading

• David Warren MacArthur

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File:Lockheed P-38 Lightning (USAAC).jpg. (2018, January 5). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Retrieved 02:00, January 1, 2020 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lockheed_P-38_Lightning_(USAAC).jpg&oldid=277152768.

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