From Pow to Blue Angel: The Story of Commander Dusty Rhodes

319 Pages·2006·2.76 MB·English

by  James L. Armstrong

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From POW
to Blue Angel
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Lt. Cdr. Raleigh E. “Dusty” Rhodes, Officer in Charge of the U.S. Navy Flight
Demonstration Team, January 1948. Official photograph, U.S. Navy.
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From POW
to Blue Angel
The Story of
Commander Dusty Rhodes
Jim Armstrong
Foreword by
Captain Roy M. “Butch” Voris
University of Oklahoma Press : Norman
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Armstrong, James L. (James Lowell), 1932–
From POW to Blue Angel : the story of Commander Dusty Rhodes / Jim Armsrong ;
foreword by Roy M. “Butch” Voris.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8061-3764-9 (alk. paper)
1. Rhodes, Dusty, 1918– 2. World War, 1939–1945—Prisoners and prisons,
Japanese. 3. Prisoners of war—United States—Biography. 4. Prisoners of war—
Japan—Biography. 5. Air pilots, Military—United States—Biography. 6. United
States. Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron—Biography. I. Title: From prisoner
of war to Blue Angel. II. Title.
D805.J3R54 2006
358.40092—dc22
[B] 2005056880
Excerpt from THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Wolfe. Copyright © 1979 by Tom Wolfe.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources, Inc. ∞
Copyright © 2006 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of
the University. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the U.S.A.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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To all the men and women
who have risked their lives or suffered or died
to make life safer and freer for the rest of us
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... the idea here ... seemed to be that a man should have the ability
to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line
and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness,
to pull it back in the last yawning moment—and then to go up again
the next day,and the next day, and every next day, even if the series
should prove infinite—and, ultimately, in its best expression, do so in
a cause that means something to thousands, to a people, a nation, to
humanity, to God.
Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff
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Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Foreword, by Captain Roy M. “Butch” Voris xiii
Preface: The Fighter Pilot xv
Author’s Note xix
Prologue: Task Force 61 3
1 First Blood 6
2 Predicament 16
3 Rescue 26
4 Truk Stop 36
5 The Quiz Kids 53
6 Ofuna Blues 71
7 The Stadium 92
8 Yokohama Christmas 109
9 The Brickyard 119
10 War’s End 144
11 Homeward Bound 157
12 Homecoming 169
13 Refresher 195
14 Angels and Bearcats 209
15 Top Cat 223
· ix ·