The seed for the books Flights of Angels and Billy Benson was planted over fifty years ago, on September 1, 1945, when the author's neighbor, Navy pilot Lt. Marcy Darnall (above right), was killed in the Philippine Islands, the last day of WWII.
Doug James was only nine years old but the event was permanently etched in his brain.
Earlier, another neighbor, Lynwood Glazier (above left), who flew for the Army, was declared missing in the Pacific.
James didn't know Glazier, but the news of his disappearance and death hung over his close-knit neighborhood like a dark cloud.
A half-century later, James began sketching out a basic plot for Flights of Angels and Billy Benson and commenced his research---three years of it---to commemorate the lives of Darnall and Glazier.
"What we owe all those young men is absolutely beyond our grasp," James believes. "Everyday, ordinary, hometown boys who volunteered to serve. Their service to their country was selfless, and too often, terminal."
James has dedicated his novel Flights of Angels to Glazier and Darnall and their comrades-in-arms. Billy Benson is dedicated to Florence, Alabama, the hometown of these two brave heroes.
These books are much more than a fabulous read taking you up in the bright yellow Stearman airplane named the "Yellow Peril." They are two compelling stories of the young Navy pilot Billy Benson as he works his way through flight training.