Benjamin Fred Starr Jr.

When a Man Loves to Fly: a Case for Family Life in a Military Career Benjamin Fred Starr Jr.

The book is about family life. It starts with the formation of a family unit soon after Virginia Starr graduates from Murphy High School. She was very young, only sixteen years old. She was more or less a camp follower during the first two years of Fred?s service as a Cadet and only about three months service as a Second Lieutenant. Then, about two years and four months of school, with Fred studying every night to well after midnight, trying to maintain a C average in order to stay in school under the GI Bill of Rights. The money need to run a family, over and above the stipend provided by the GI bill was earned by Ginny working for the Department of Agriculture in Atlanta. She paid for the first airplane ? a PT-23 primary trainer. There were three children, Rick, Mark, who was seven years younger than Rick, and Cindy, two and a half years after Mark. Each chapter in the book illustrates some interesting characteristic of family life and military life thoroughly mixed together within a close-knit Air Force Family. There are stories about flying over the deserts of Arizona, having babies in little Air Force Clinics, survival in Alaska, atomic weapons that helped win the cold war and, the excitement of moving around the country, even getting pregnant in a camping trailer at Yellowstone Park. Stories about Cushman Eagles (motorcycles) and flights in a Beechcraft Debonair. Mark soloed at age sixteen and enjoyed BigManOnCampus status during his high school years at Mascoutah, Kansas. The stories about getting promoted to General Officer after being a C student, reading very slowly and difficulty remembering names, totally unlike any general known to the author of this book, is a big story. The support of a great family was one of the main factors. The family support all the way through the book is an outstanding feature, and the Blessings of a Loving God overcomes a lot of weaknesses all the way through.