I Always Wanted to Fly

"In I Always Wanted to Fly Wolfgang Samuel presents a book on a neglected subject, the U.S. Air Force men and women of the Cold War. These are the people who won the Cold War-not by themselves, obviously, but don't ask me how it could have been done without them. Colonel Samuel is a ¿yer, ¿rst of all, but he is also a historian. In this book he concentrates on people. Through Samuel's work, we learn how it was done and by whom."
-Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944 to May 7, 1945

"I Always Wanted to Fly displays the clarity that comes from ¿ying on the hot end of the Cold War and, as a consequence, tells us much about the sociopolitical evolution of our recent era as well as revealing how these Air Force missions were ¿own. Any readers who have marveled at the last half-century's magni¿cent military aircraft and the supremely professional ¿yers at their controls will be attracted to this book."
-Jerome Klinkowitz, author of With the Tigers over China 1941-1942 and Yanks over Europe: American Flyers in World War II

"Wolf Samuel uses personal experiences to underscore American airpower's formidable role in winning the Cold War. Framed by his own excellent prose, Samuel lets the pilots, navigators, and air and ground crew tell their own tales. The result, of course, is a series of ripping good war stories-bona ¿de 'there I was . . .' narratives-that paint for us a ¿yer's life during the many separate con¿icts that combined to make up the Cold War. I Always Wanted to Fly is a bonanza for airmen to come, and a rich source of satisfaction for those of us who sat alert on cold, windswept air¿elds, not knowing if today would be the day."
-Don Higgins, Colonel, USAF, pilot of the F-111 Aardvark, EF-111 Raven, F-117 Nighthawk, and the B-2 Spirit


Col. Wolfgang W. E. Samuel is a distinguished graduate of the 1960 Air Force ROTC, and served in the Air Force until his retirement in 1985. He is the author of German Boy: A Refugee's Story; The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II; American Raiders: The Race to Capture the Luftwaffe's Secrets; and Coming to Colorado: A Young Immigrant's Journey to Become an American Flyer, all published by University Press of Mississippi. Ken Hechler is the author of The Bridge at Remagen.