Indestructible

 

Gotta have more. John R. Bruning's Indestructible had me attacking over 500 pages even after the story about Paul Irving "Pappy" Gunn was finished. The content flew like a fast fighter plane, despite the expected few software errors we have come to expect in modern book reading.

Gunn's personal story in rural Arkansas, his between-wars Navy career, and his family are well written. The enormous, continuing emotion separating them when Japan overran U.S. forces in the Philippines, his tireless, innovative work re-shaping Army warbirds rather than wait on slow government progress and military improvements are well-documented, too. 

He would do whatever it took to edge him closer to his family in Manila, Yes, even hold up supply depots for materiel at gunpoint, work to exhaustion many times, and fly combat missions even when it was not expected of him. He is that incredible you might not have heard of.

Bruning's back-and-forth design between his family in Manila's Santo Tomas University/prison camp nicely blends all the factors and personality elements. Everything leads to a highly emotional family reunion in Australia. It's 500 really fast pages, and I kept going well into the notes and acknowledgments.  I hope Tom Hanks read this. The story deserved this very well-written book, and more.

Fortunately, if you miss Indestructible, there are other books about "Pappy" Gunn.