Jimmy Stewart

The off-screen heroics of an American screen legend Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II - and they were legion - Jimmy Stewart was unique On December 7th, when the attack on Pearl Harbor woke so many others to the reality of the war, Stewart was already serving - as a private on guard duty at the Army Al Corp's Moffet Field south of San Francisco. Seeing war on the horizon, Jimmy Stewart, at the height of his fame after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, had enlisted several months earlier. Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot chronicles the star's long journey to become a bomber pilot in combat. Author Starr Smith recounts how Stewart's first battles were with the Air Corps high command, who insisted on keeping the naturally talented pilot out of harm's way as an instructor pilot for B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators. We learn how, by 1944, Stewart managed to get assigned to a Liberator squadron that was deploying to England to join the mighty Eighth Air Force - and how, once in the thick of it, he rose to command his own squadron and flew twenty combat missions, including one to Berlin. Written by a public relations officer assigned to Stewart, Jimmy Stewart Bomber Pilot offers a fascinating, firsthand look at the making of a true American star.