Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War tells the story of Mary Lawlor’s dramatic, roving life as a warrior’s child. A family biography and a young woman’s vision of the Cold War, Fighter Pilot’s Daughter narrates the more than many transfers the family made from Miami to California to Germany as the Cold War demanded. Each chapter describes the workings of this traveling household in a different place and time. The book’s climax takes us to Paris in May ’68, where Mary—until recently a dutiful military daughter—has joined the legendary student demonstrations against among other things, the Vietnam War. Meanwhile her father is flying missions out of Saigon for that very same war. Though they are on opposite sides of the political divide, a surprising reconciliation comes years later.
Book Cover:
Really cool cover. The snapshot of the family was a really great touch. Added authenticity to the book even before you even opened it up. Loved the color scheme.
Favorite Quote:
“Boy those spins are something. We climbed to 4000, cut the motor and turner her nose straight up and put the rudder hard left and bingo! Down she goes nose first spinning like a top. We do two complete spins and come out of it.”
First Chapter Review:
This first chapter at first focuses on Edmond Vincent Lawlor's background. Edmond was the author's grandfather. Then the focus shines on Jack, which at this point I'm gathering was the author's father. Jack enrolls as a cadet at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and writes letters to his father in which the author was lucky enough to get her hands on. Jack is very excited to be doing what he's doing. He was finding talents he didn't even know he had. The stories that he would write home about made you feel as if you were right there with him. You could sense how excited he was, but sad at the same time when he writes how he hated it when his friends he met along the way had to leave and go to other parts of the world. Then it came a time when he just had to leave the Merchant Marines for better things and so he joined the Navy. This is where he knew the Navy could give him something the Merchant Marines couldn't give him - he could learn how to fly. In the fall of '42, he began flight school at the Naval air station in New Palz, New York, north of West Point. And loves it. In May of '45, he "finally set out for the war, to the site of one of the bloodiest conflicts, Okinawa."
Keep Reading?
I do plan to keep reading! Chapter one was quite an incredible read and I just have to find out more. I'm a history buff so you know I'm enjoying this!
I give this first chapter a 5 star rating!
Mary Lawlor is author of Fighter Pilot’s Daughter (Rowman & Littlefield 2013, paper 2015), Public Native America (Rutgers Univ. Press 2006), and Recalling the Wild (Rutgers Univ. Press, 2000). Her short stories and essays have appeared in Big Bridge and Politics/Letters. She studied the American University in Paris and earned a Ph.D. from New York University. She divides her time between an old farmhouse in Easton, Pennsylvania, and a cabin in the mountains of southern Spain.
You can visit her website at https://www.marylawlor.net/ or connect with her on Twitter or Facebook.
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