Hmmm… Warplanes? I do not know much about war aircrafts nor was I ever interested in warfare nor war related weapons of destruction. The closest contact to warfare knowledge was the brief history lessons during school days. Ever since, I would not dwell deep into war topics - the subject of warfare being too dry for a female chromosome, the atrocities waged at war too heartbreaking to bear. Yet, the subject of warfare is unavoidable in one's life as the media is strife with news of tension and conflict.
Neither will I imagine myself enjoying reading warfare literature. A recent visit to The Museum of Flight in Seattle had spurred my interest in WWII history and a coincident reading of a novel "The Boy in Striped Pyjamas" (a supremely light read depicting a subtle portrayal of political injustice through the naive eye of a 9 year old boy) on The Holocaust. I started to 'wikipedia' for WWII related articles. Every article is immensely loaded with new information previously unknown to me, which at a click will further illuminate the unexplored field. The more I read, the more it whets my appetite. However, it comes at a cost - it whips up a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts which I shall not elaborate.
The next book I picked out is A Higher Call, a memoir that will warm the heart, knowing that true honour and kindness do exist even in the darkness of war. It doubles up as an educational read - I learn about warplanes and ammo, the technicalities and tactics of warfare in a non-dry textbook manner. In fact, I was able to visualise these warplanes and imagine the scenarios as the visit to The Museum of Flight had equipped me with the background on WWII. I am amused to learn that a B-17 bomber was manned by 9 persons in a full combat and all the crew were situated at different parts of the plane, from the nose to the tail! The book is such an enlightenment (now I can spar with my boy on war combat terminologies ;p) that I feel compelled to poke a B-17 Bomber :-)
