Heroes In Our Midst, Volume 1: WWII American Airborne: Early Years, Training, Jump Wings, Parachutes, Jump Helmets, Paramarines
LTC(Ret.) John R. Angolia: Entered service as a Military Police­man at the end of the Korean War. Graduated from the Virginia Military Institute as a Distinguished Military Graduate in 1959. Commissioned as Regular Army Officer with assignment to the 82nd Airborne Division. Qualified as Jump Master, Senior Parachutist, Ranger and Special Forces. Holds BA in History, Master of Science, and Master of Military Arts and Science degrees. Author of numerous books dealing with various aspects of military history. Among the first RA officers assigned to the newly created Military Intelligence branch. In retirement, he and his wife travel the world in search of new adventures. He has a private museum covering all services of WWII military where he welcomes veterans, historians and collectors. Jake Powers: Jake has been a life-long student of WWII US Airborne history, specializing in research of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment for over 30 years. He is the Official Company Historian for Easy Company, Band of Brothers, and acted as the Historical Consultant to the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers, and documentary We Stand Alone Together. He has contributed to numerous historical publications including WWII Magazine s Band of Brothers special edition as well as several other World War II 101st Airborne related books. He has appeared as a commentator for TBS s Movies for Guys Who Like Movies. Jake lectures frequently on the subject of E Company and the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Jake was the first honorary member of E Company, and has led numerous tours to the battlefields of Europe. He has recently completed a book on the photo history of E Company for Genesis Publishing. In addition to operating Band of Brothers Tours, Jake works as an executive in a major Fortune 100 company. Powers attended the University of Georgia where he majored in Business, and played football. George A. Petersen, Consultant: He was helped Bender Publi­cations during the production of military reference books over many years, most notably Jack Angolia s Army series, and Cloth Insignia of the SS. When he saw the original draft to this airborne series he immediately offered his services and resources to Bender Publishing and LTC Jack Angolia to make this series the best available on WWII U.S. airborne collectibles. Over his many years of collecting and dealing he has built a massive reference library and photo archive. Additionally, he has had numerous relationships with collectors of airborne material, various U.S. Government museums and archives, and organizations such as ASMIC (American Society of Military Insignia Collectors). Almost to a man, these contacts have resulted in access to premier private collections and archives. He has taken time from being his busy schedule at National Capital Historical Sales, Inc., of Springfeild, Virginia, and worked numerous hours on this book project plus traveling thousands of miles by plane and car to visit collectors, museums and archives. He is a U.S. Army veteran (1964-1967) and served as a light wearpons infantryman with Co. B, 1st Bn., 3rd Infantry Rgt. (The Old Guard) and a year in Vietnam (Dec. 1965-Dec. 1966) with the 765th Security Platoon at Vung Tau Army Airfield.