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with such vividness and exactitude,” the author writes in his introduction.
“The answer is simple. I carried these pictures of life and death in the vault of my memory, unchanged by time, until I was ready to write them down. For much of my life I tried to forget what I had seen, smelled, felt and heard in those days of horror. Once I sat down and started to write, it was as if I were stepping back in time and reliving it all....everything tumbled out as if it were on videotape.”
Videotape is an apt description of this memoir, which moves with the quick pace and high drama of a suspense movie, from the family’s narrow escape from the advancing Russian troops to the depressing, dehumanizing life in the dreary barracks of a refugee camp. Yet the book is not all horror and grief, for the boy and his family encounter heroic acts of bravery and human kindness from many—both Germans and Americans—who help them survive their ordeal.
Along the way, the young German boy is fascinated by the flyers of warplanes, and by the American crews who flew the Berlin Airlift to supply the food and fuel to frustrate the Russians’ effort to strangle the divided German city into submission. He dreams of becoming one of those men, and after immigrating to America in 1951, eventually joins the U.S. Air Force to realize his dream.
Col. Samuel retired after 30 years of service in the Air Force, and now lives in Fairfax, Va. His book has received favorable reviews in
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