Lost Black Sheep - The Search for WWII Ace Chris Magee (Paperback, 2nd)

Chris Magee was the leading ace under Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington of the Marine Corp's legendary Black Sheep Squadron. A free-spirited intellectual with the heart of a warrior and the soul of a poet, Magee grew up on Chicago's rambunctious South Side dreaming of the day when he could fly fighter planes into combat. Magee's determination to achieve his goal prompted him to join the Royal Canadian Air Force as a flying cadet in 1941. Later, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into the war, he transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps. Following completion of flight training, he was sent to the South Pacific where his bravery and piloting skills earned him both the enduring respect of his fellow aviators and the Navy Cross. When the war ended, the fiercely independent Magee refused to pursue a conventional lifestyle or take advantage of the fame that awaited him in his hometown, choosing instead to seek new adventures. During the next twelve years he walked the razor's edge: black marketeer, bootlegger, volunteer fighter pilot for the fledgling nation of Israel, courier for a covert group of U.S. "businessmen" involved in Latin American politics, and, eventually, bank robber. Magee would pay dearly for the choices he made, losing family, friends, and his cherished freedom. In his middle years, he turned his life around and became a respected journalist. By age 70, he had resigned himself to a stoic retirement in a rustic apartment on Chicago's North Side. Then, one day, Chris Magee found an envelope slipped under his front door with a note inside that ultimately changed his life, causing him to revisit parts of his past he thought were forever forgotten.