num_pages: 283
description: In June of 1950, North Korean troops swept across the 38th Parallel defeating both American and South Korean troops, but failing to drive them into the sea. An amphibious landing at Inchon reversed the tide, and led to U.S. forces moving into North Korea soon reaching the border of Manchuria. Whereupon Chinese armies crushed the American Eighth Army, pushing it back to the Parallel. Two years of battle ensued with the Americans enjoying some success though, ultimately, the armistice resulted in the two sides in positions they had occupied at the beginning of the conflict. Key to America’s ability to match Chinese and North Korean forces was control of the sky. And key to this airpower was the F-86 Sabre which, with well-trained pilots, controlled the airspace above the Korean peninsula taking on, and defeating, Russian-built MiG-15s flown by North Korean, Chinese, and Soviet pilots. To Begin Again tells the story of one of these aviators. Colonel Benjamin McGrath, a Georgetown University history professor, is recalled to the Air Force and goes to Korea, commanding a special detachment of F-86s to engage the MiGs at 30,000 feet above the Yalu River. The novel relates his combat experiences, his romance with one of his students, his friendship with a Jesuit colleague at Georgetown, and his involvement with a young American schoolteacher in Japan.
language: English
title: To Begin Again: A Novel of Love And War
titlecomplete: To Begin Again: A Novel of Love And War
publisher: Ivy House Pub Group