Story from the past
Written: Jan 30 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Engaging and intimate writing style, good interviews and accounts
Cons: No technical details which might help the reader understand certain events better.
The Bottom Line: This book would be good for aviation and/or military history enthusiasts.
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| seether166's Full Review: Echoes of Eagles: A Son's Search for His Father an... |
My friend at work was reading this book and I was taken in by the cover. A military buff who is particularly intrigued by planes, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to read a book featuring a WWI fighter plane on the cover. The specific book I just finished reading, is actually signed by the author himself, Charles Woolley. I mention this only because the book itself is written in a very intimate style, and seeing his note at the beginning only added to that for me.
Echoes of Eagles is mostly about the 95th Aero Squadron which served in France during World War I. It is written by the grandson of Charles Woolley (who shares the same name). It reads like an ongoing research project, rife with interviews from the men who were there. While I was initially not impressed with the style, it grew on me by about halfway through the book.
What is slightly odd about the book is the amount of times Woolley says things along the lines of, “my father did this” and so on. It just seems a little out of place in a military history book, but as I said, contributes to the overall charm of the book. By about the middle of the book, I felt very close to the author and the story of his father.
Woolley takes us through his father’s growing up, and subsequent joining of the American Field Service, which drove ambulances during WWI. Initially, since America had not entered the war, a lot of Americans who volunteered went this route. When the first U.S. Army Air Corp units were put together, a lot of volunteers came from this. One thing I enjoyed about this part of the book was how Woolley described the caliber of the men who fought in the air service. Many were graduates of Yale, Stanford, Harvard, and other top name schools. One was even the son of Teddy Roosevelt, Quentin Roosevelt who was killed in action.
Next, flight training and the associated accidents are described in great deal. Eventually, we’re brought to Woolley’s father’s time spent on the front with the squadron. Here is where the book gets exciting. Woolley details many missions and extraordinary incidents that are from first hand interviewed, or a variety of researched reports. The entire book has an authentic feel that can only come from extensive time and effort investigation into the subject.
A section that describes what happened to several of the men after the war, as well as a glossary of French words and aerobatic maneuvers completes the book. Oddly enough, there is one page “about the author” which I felt I had to read, so into the story I was at that point.
Echoes of Eagles starts out a little slowly, but once the reader develops an affinity for both the author and the men he writes about, it is an exciting tale of those “knights of the air.” One thing you will find lacking though is any technical description of any kind. For instance, the way in which the machines and their armaments worked was not described at all. This might have been useful in instances where the reader is left wondering, “How did he just run away from the fight so easily?”
However, this wasn’t ever meant to be a Tom Clancy style novel rampant with tech specs and the like. It ends up being a story that you can picture a grandfather telling his grandson who is hanging on every word. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the world of aviation or military history. It tells a descriptive and authentic story which you would enjoy.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
seether166
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Member: Wes
Location: Syracuse, NY
Reviews written: 69
Trusted by: 12 members
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