We’re thrilled to share our first editorial review, from no less than the prestigious Journal of the Air Force Historical Foundation. Suffice it to say, we couldn’t have asked for a better reception:
Bowman is a retired USAF master sergeant who spent his career in the Security Police. Somewhere along the line, he must have discovered a love for awards and decorations and a flair for research. That is good, because he is quite excellent at ferreting out historical facts and putting them on paper. He wrote several books on individuals and their military decorations before compiling this first volume of a planned three on USAF (including the Air Service, Air Corps, and USAAF) Medal of Honor (MoH) recipients.
Sixty-two USAF airmen have been awarded the MoH for distinguishing themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty. Bowman covers the first 24 recipients in this first volume of the trilogy—from Eddie Rickenbacker in the First World War to Forrest Vosler in the Second. He has organized the books by date of the action for which the award was made. Most books on the MoH and its recipients are organized alphabetically. Bowman’s system allows the reader to better understand the overall context in which the award was made. The four recipients from World War I are grouped together, so one gets a better sense of the award in context of that particular air war.
Each of the 24 recipient’s stories is presented in a standardized format: a very short summary of the story is followed by a photo of the individual. What follows is the airman’s life “Before the Medal,” the “Medal of Honor Action,” and his “Life After the Medal” (unless the action resulted in the individual’s death). Everybody is probably thinking this is the typical page or two biography. Absolutely not. What Bowman’s decades of research give the reader is a monograph on each man that is generally way larger than a typical AFHF Journal article. We learn the details of the man—what made him tick and do what he did in combat. The reader also sees the vast diversity of these people: some rich, some poor; some outgoing, others nearly loners; highly educated to just-out-of-grade school; already famous to never-heard-of-again.
Let’s talk research. Bowman’s bibliography is huge: books, interviews, archival material, correspondence, newspaper articles, the internet, and more. His text is very well end-noted. If one wants to nit-pick some particular point, I’m certain that Bowman can readily go to the source. The two appendices list all of the awards and ratings the individual earned in his life and give actual citations for the major awards. The pictures are all germane and presented in hi-res. The publisher is to be commended for the layout work and presentation.
In short, this is the best of the many excellent MoH books I’ve seen. My only complaint is that more maps are needed given the level of detail in the stories. So, have an atlas handy. The next two volumes will, hopefully, be out about a year apart. I eagerly await them. For those interested in the best of the best of our Air Force, this book is more than worth the price and reading time.
Col Scott A. Willey, USAF (Ret), Book Review Editor, and former National Air and Space Museum docent
See what all the fuss is about here.
Thirty years in the writing, a year and a half in production... Joseph P. Bowman's monumental Bravest of the Brave Read more
