Overview

They were the stuff of legends and, indeed, their exploits throughout the simmering Caribbean region of the late 1940s have gained a life of their own over the intervening years. They were a mix of the finest and brightest - true patriots - with a seasoning of ambitious politicians, soldiers of fortune and blatant arms merchants. But through it all, their often-splintered leadership recognized the pivotal value of air power, and so they organized one of the very first extra-national air forces - non-traditional in the extreme. This in-depth examination goes beyond the politics and noble aspirations of the participants, whether patriot or despot, and reveals for the first time the lengths that the Legionaries went to in assembling an air strike force the likes of which the world had not yet witnessed. From B-24 Liberators to P-38 Lightnings, and down to non-lethal Vultee BT-13s and lumbering transports, the Legion's Air Force could well have been the pointy end of a political transformation that would shake entrenched dictators to the core. Well-illustrated and documented by a team of award-winning aero historians, this latest addition to the excellent Helion Latin America @War series is a must for those seeking the rest of the story. 120 photographs, 10 artworks, 10-12 maps

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9781912866373

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Dan Hagedorn - Curator and Director of Collections at The Museum of Flight at historic Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, is a graduate of Villa Maria College, the State University of New York, and the Command and General Staff College (U.S. Army, post-graduate). He was previously Adjunct Curator and Research Team Leader at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC for 19 years. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Armed Forces for 27 years in leadership and intelligence positions worldwide and has, to date, authored 21 monographs or books detailing various aspects of aviation and aerospace history. In conjunction with the 150th Anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution, he was named an Unsung Hero of the Smithsonian Institution and was awarded the Orden Merito Santos-Dumont by the Brazilian Government for services to Latin American aviation history, in which he specializes. Mario Overall - Co-founder of the Latin American Aviation Historical Society, has studies of Systems Engineering at the Mariano Galvez University of Guatemala. He served in the Guatemalan Air Force as Computer Specialists and then in the same capacity with the Narcotics Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy to Guatemala. He has authored more than 15 articles related to the history of military aviation in Central America, which have been published in renowned magazines in the U.S., Spain, Brazil, Mexico, England, France and Poland. He also has collaborated with several authors in their research work about Latin American Aviation History.

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