The Millionaire's Unit
Subtitle: The Aristocratic Flyboys who Fought the Great War and Invented American Airpower
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: May 8, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9781586483289
Subjects: European history: First World War; First World War, 1914-1918; Military - World War I; Air Forces; World War I; History; History - Military / War; Military; Europe; USA; Military - Aviation; Military - United States; Aerial operations, American; Aeronautics, Military; Campaigns; France; United States; World War, 1914-1918
First sentence: AS FREDERICK TRUBEE DAVISON'S SOPHOMORE YEAR DREW TO A CLOSE, he had begun to bask in the sunshine of Yale.
Description: In 1916, just thirteen years after the Wright brothers' first flight, a group of twenty-eight college students, and sons of America's early 20th century aristocracy, decided to try the sport of motorized flight and formed a campus flying club. The Millionaires' Unit is the story of a gilded generation of young men from the zenith of privilege: a Rockerfeller, the son of the head of the Union Pacific Railroad, several who counted friends and relatives among presidents and statesmen of the day. They had it all and, remarkably by modern standards, they were prepared to risk it all to fight a distant war in France. For readers of Flyboys, The greatest generation, or Flags of our fathers, this patriotic, romantic, absorbing book is narrative military history of the best kind.