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More From The Navigators Letter From Author Jan Cress Dondi · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: Seby checked it out. Yet arrow dot net a r
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  Speaker 1: A r r oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Hey errow,
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  Speaker 1: Hello and good morning, welcome back. How have you been.
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  Speaker 2: I've been great and I'm so glad I'm talking to
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  Speaker 2: you again.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's because you get it. You truly understand the
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  Speaker 1: importance of especially in a book like this, the importance
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  Speaker 1: of history and how it folds into our everyday world,
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  Speaker 1: and how this is coming out right now during these
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  Speaker 1: times of amazing change. I mean, you could not have
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  Speaker 1: asked for a more perfect time.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Don Miller said my book was timely, He
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  Speaker 2: told me, John Miller of Master of the Air.
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  Speaker 1: And for you to be able to do that, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there's no way that an author understands that correct flight. Absolutely,
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  Speaker 1: how did you prepare for something like this?
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  Speaker 2: So it came from probably five or six hundred letters
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  Speaker 2: that I found in the basement, and I realized the
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  Speaker 2: coincidences between these two men, John Biid my uncle and
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  Speaker 2: Bob my father, and for it to.
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  Speaker 1: Though, but it didn't end just like that. What I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there's a journey that obviously, because you talk about the
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  Speaker 1: scent of those letters, you talk about the connection. They're
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  Speaker 1: on two completely different flights, and it's like, how in
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  Speaker 1: the world did these two come together like this? And
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  Speaker 1: you're able to see it, experience it, and now share
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  Speaker 1: it with the rest of the world.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it was amazing that I have the entire PLOEFCI
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  Speaker 2: campaign under one roof through the voices of these two guys, John,
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  Speaker 2: b and Bob. It all started out with tidal waves.
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  Speaker 2: You can't win, victory can't happen in World War two
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  Speaker 2: unless you take out the oil. And so the powers
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  Speaker 2: that be decided CLESTI supplied a third of the Nazi
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  Speaker 2: fuel supply, so they decided to go against that with
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  Speaker 2: the Air Force.
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  Speaker 1: And yet where we are today is pretty much in
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  Speaker 1: the same boat. But nobody's taking out anybody's oil. Because
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  Speaker 1: they know it's gonna recavoc on the human being because
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  Speaker 1: we all around the world need that oil. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I just think it's so fascinating that you're dealing with
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  Speaker 1: this that was happening in World War two, whereas you
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  Speaker 1: see how we as a nation and with all of
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  Speaker 1: our leaders that we maybe we are learning or maybe
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  Speaker 1: they grabbed your book, Jan and they read it first
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  Speaker 1: and said, you know what, let's back it down. Justice
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  Speaker 1: tid bit here.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of red tape nowadays. They
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  Speaker 2: could get things done long ago, and this tidal wave mission,
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  Speaker 2: they knew they had to take out the refineries. John
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  Speaker 2: B went on the first low level zero altitude raid
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  Speaker 2: and that's fifty feet to one hundred and fifty feet
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  Speaker 2: above your house. He did this, They flew in. There
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  Speaker 2: were some navigation errors by the lead group. John Be's
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  Speaker 2: group went as a single unit on the southern fortifications
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  Speaker 2: and that was the fiercest defenses in Europe, and that
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  Speaker 2: morning or over the target. One hundred and sixty five
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  Speaker 2: planes made it over the target and fifty four did
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  Speaker 2: not return, which also meant over five hundred men did
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  Speaker 2: not return that night. And John B was one of
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  Speaker 2: them missing in action, but they regrouped. The Air Force
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  Speaker 2: regrouped a couple months later, Bob out of Italy, so
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  Speaker 2: John B was in the eighth Air Force. Bob was
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  Speaker 2: in the fifteenth. His chance to go floeft came up,
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  Speaker 2: and in the meantime he knew John B had been
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  Speaker 2: shot down, and he knew the fear of God was
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  Speaker 2: put in them when they heard the Bloisky was the target.
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  Speaker 2: He was shot down and went missing in action for months.
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  Speaker 2: Ultimately he was captured and he was part of Operation
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  Speaker 2: Reunion that few people know about. The Tuskegee airmen flew
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  Speaker 2: cover over enemy territory as waves of six B seventeens
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  Speaker 2: would pick up twenty minute a time, with their engines
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  Speaker 2: going the boy teller's going. The wave would take off
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  Speaker 2: and another wave would come up and take another twenty
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  Speaker 2: in each plane until they repatriated twelve hundred POWs back
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  Speaker 2: to American air bases in Italy.
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  Speaker 1: Well, well, and you know, and I'm sure in the
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  Speaker 1: last conversation we talked about this, you know that I'm
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  Speaker 1: jealous of these men that would least he made it
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  Speaker 1: even to a prisoner of war camp. Because my mother
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  Speaker 1: lost two of her brothers, and we don't know, we
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  Speaker 1: don't know where they are. And so when I hear
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  Speaker 1: stories like this, and this could be the reason why
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  Speaker 1: I'm instantly drawn to it. You have letters I'm jealous
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  Speaker 1: of You have letters. I don't have those letters, And
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  Speaker 1: it's one of the and I can there's no way
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  Speaker 1: that I am the only one that's going to sit
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  Speaker 1: here and read this book or have a conversation with
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  Speaker 1: you that's that's gone through this and that you really
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  Speaker 1: are an answer to many of us.
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  Speaker 2: You really are, Jen I sincerely appreciate that. I think
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  Speaker 2: it's a good story. The Operation Reunion has not has
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  Speaker 2: not been told the Tusky gearman with the brave men
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  Speaker 2: that circled above as they were bringing those men back.
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  Speaker 2: But the story through the voices of these two men,
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  Speaker 2: the complete Filesci campaign was described, and the coincidences are
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  Speaker 2: so uncanny that these men would follow the same path.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, different air forces, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Air Force and fifteenth Air Force.
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  Speaker 1: Please do not move. We'll be right back with Jan
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  Speaker 1: Chres Dundee coming up next. Oh, she's back with another
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  Speaker 1: great book, The Navigator's Letter. We are back with Jan
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  Speaker 1: Chres Dondee. Any idea, how this connection. I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: mean seriously, because I mean you got to remember that.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we're in this generation where social media is
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  Speaker 1: everything and we have everything instantly. Was this their social media?
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  Speaker 1: Was this their opportunity to help heal each other? There's
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  Speaker 1: to me, there's there's my soul is saying there's a
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  Speaker 1: deeper story. Go deeper, Go deeper, Go deeper, go deeper.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, So when these guys went up in a plane
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  Speaker 2: up at altitude, it could be freezing minus s yes, yes,
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  Speaker 2: dealing with cold, and they're tethered their their heat suit
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  Speaker 2: is tethered to a plug. They've also got hearing communications
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  Speaker 2: and a line to the plane, and they also had
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  Speaker 2: to wear an oxygen mask a third line, so they
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  Speaker 2: were tethered to the plane, didn't have a lot of
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  Speaker 2: move but when they got over the target, they faced
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  Speaker 2: these black puffs of shrapnel. They couldn't avoid them because
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  Speaker 2: they had a plane on their wing in formation. You
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  Speaker 2: couldn't move any so you just had to muscle through
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  Speaker 2: and a direct hit from those could send a plane down.
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  Speaker 2: They if they were lucky enough to make it through
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  Speaker 2: the target. Enemy fighters came shooting their twenty millimeters cannons,
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  Speaker 2: and they were shooting to kill. If they it was fearsome.
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  Speaker 2: If they got on the ground, if they got back
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  Speaker 2: to base, they were greeted with a shot of whiskey
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  Speaker 2: to bring them down from the day. They would they
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  Speaker 2: would walk to their tents. They would pass maybe an
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  Speaker 2: empty tenth of the guys that they ate breakfast that
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  Speaker 2: morning who were shot down. All they wanted to do
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  Speaker 2: was come back to their tent, write a letter. And
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  Speaker 2: these were five page letters. I mean, they were long
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  Speaker 2: letters about the gossip, who's dating, to the marriage marriages.
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  Speaker 2: But they were lifelines to them. And yes, they were
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  Speaker 2: their social media. That was the only way they communicated.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. And and it's just it's just one of the
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  Speaker 1: and one of the things that you brought up with
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  Speaker 1: them going back to the tent. Never thought about that,
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  Speaker 1: And so right away I'm reminded of all of these
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  Speaker 1: rock stars and music and movie actors and things like that.
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  Speaker 1: They go through what I call post production blues. I
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  Speaker 1: can't imagine the post production blues they went through after
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  Speaker 1: that plane was landed and then they have to go
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  Speaker 1: and be by themselves. I just can't imagine being in
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  Speaker 1: that moment, right.
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  Speaker 2: And they always close the letters with everything's going fine here,
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  Speaker 2: but I'd better get to bed because I've got to
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  Speaker 2: go back upstairs tomorrow. Of course, I'm just crazy crazy
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  Speaker 2: with no GPS too. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Well you you, you have you captivated my attention when
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  Speaker 1: when you're talking about going into those letters, because I'm
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  Speaker 1: a daily writer of thirty two years and I one
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  Speaker 1: of these days I'm going to have to go through
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  Speaker 1: all that writing or somebody will. And the scent of it,
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  Speaker 1: that's the one thing that I've always been so much
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  Speaker 1: aware of. What will the scent be like? And now,
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  Speaker 1: because you've been with these old letters from World War Two?
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  Speaker 1: What was it like? Tell me? I mean, did it
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to say it stunk because history doesn't stink.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Well, I will tell you I shed a lot
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  Speaker 2: of cheers of reading these letters, and I read them
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  Speaker 2: over and over again. But the most powerful moment I
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  Speaker 2: think in all my research was standing on John B's
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  Speaker 2: airbase in England. I was brought on with more emotion
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  Speaker 2: than I expected, and I think it's because I could
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  Speaker 2: hear in my head the roar of those B twenty
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  Speaker 2: four is taking off every thirty seconds form up and
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  Speaker 2: the roar, the sound and it was a powerful, powerful
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  Speaker 2: emotional time for me.
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  Speaker 1: No, I can relate with that because my father, who
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  Speaker 1: fought in World War Two. We went down to Charleston
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  Speaker 1: where there's a Giganic aircraft carrier. We drove the three hours.
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  Speaker 1: Mom and Dad coming from Montana. We were on that ship.
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  Speaker 1: What Lee, maybe three minutes? Three minutes and he goes,
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  Speaker 1: let's go. I mean we were done. We were all
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  Speaker 1: of that time, the planning, the driving, everything. He wanted
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  Speaker 1: nothing to do with it. Nothing, And a book like
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  Speaker 1: this really helps us understand why he had nothing.
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  Speaker 2: Right. Absolutely they I think they needed to tell these stories.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, if we don't.
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  Speaker 2: If we don't tell these stories preserve their stories, war
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  Speaker 2: becomes abstract, and we don't, we missed the true meaning,
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  Speaker 2: the true cost of war, which are humans individuals?
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  Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you?
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  Speaker 1: Because you know Darren goodenwell you know Jam, You and
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  Speaker 1: I could talk for hours and we would be just
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  Speaker 1: just barely getting into the subjects the way that they
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  Speaker 1: need to be. Where can we go to get more
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  Speaker 1: info about you and your journey growing forward?
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  Speaker 2: So go to Jam Crust dot zondie dot com. My
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  Speaker 2: name with no spaces dot Com. You'll learn a little
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  Speaker 2: bit more about the book. The books are available anywhere
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  Speaker 2: you buy books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble Independence stores, and
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  Speaker 2: I hope everybody would read them. There is a compact
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  Speaker 2: message on my website and I would love to hear
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  Speaker 2: from your viewers what they thought of the book.
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  Speaker 1: I love it. Please come back to this show in
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  Speaker 1: the future. You know that door is always going to
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  Speaker 1: be open for you.
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  Speaker 2: Jan I love you Arrow and anytime you can have me,
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  Speaker 2: I'll be.
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  Speaker 1: On therek Will you'd be brilliant today.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, thank you so much. On YouTube