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Michael Lee Lanning tells the story of the courageous airmen who evaded capture and escaped to safety after being shot from the skies during World War II. Lanning covers the hows and whys of escape-and-evasion and aerial combat in the European theater, but also vividly captures the stories of the airmen who did the escaping and evading.
About the author
Michael Lee Lanning, a graduate of Texas A&M, served more than twenty years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel with the Senior Parachute Badge, Combat Infantryman's Badge, Ranger Tab, and Bronze Star. In Vietnam he commanded an infantry platoon, a recon platoon, and a rifle company. His military career included service as public-affairs officer for Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and Department of Defense public affairs work. He has appeared on NPR, CBS, and the History Channel and has written twenty-five books, with more than a million copies of his books in print in fifteen countries and twelve languages. His previous books include the classic Vietnam, 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal (Ivy Books, 1987; Ballantine, 1988; Texas A&M, 2007), which the New York Times called "one of the most honest and horrifying accounts of a combat soldier's life to come out of the Vietnam War." With Stackpole, he has published Tours of Duty: Vietnam War Stories (2014), reprinted Inside Force Recon: Recon Marines in Vietnam (2017), and written The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (Spring 2020). A native of Texas, Lanning lives in Lampasas, Texas, not far west of Fort Hood.
