Ayesha Roscoe

So there's loss.

And we'll get into that.

But first, I want to talk to you about how this book, it really shines a light on the lives of these men.

Was there anything that surprised you about their personal lives when you started doing this research?

Yeah.

And I mean, I found it so powerful to hear from some of these pilots in their own words through their letters to their loved ones.

And could you read a letter from John Henry Chavis?

He was writing to his mother about his soon to be bride, who he called Cookie.

Who writes like that now?

No.

And that's the other thing is reading those letters.

I was like, what have we lost in the fact that people don't send they don't communicate like that anymore.

But from this, like he's so like, you know, starry eyed and like, you know, and just like got the perfect girlfriend, which, you know, everybody feels like that at that age.

Like, how did you feel going through these personal effects?

And like, how did you get this letter?

Very heartwarming.

Yeah.

And, you know, reading that letter from Chavis filled with all of this hope and joy, the other part of the book is that it makes it really sad.

when you learn of the tragedy of his disappearance on a mission in February 1945.

The military blamed engine trouble for Chavis' plane going down.