SCRAPPY:

                                                                                                                 Howard C. "Scrappy" Johnson
                                                                                                                                         and
                                                                                                                              Ian A. O'Connor 

 "A very impressive feat by a very impressive man."  -  Chris Kenyon, cover artist 

 Renowned military portrait artist, Chris  Kenyon, spoke those words of high praise after completing the official  U.S. Air Force-commissioned painting of the 1958 Collier Trophy winner,  the highest award in American aviation. The very impressive man was  Colonel Howard C. "Scrappy" Johnson, and his very impressive feat was  piloting an F-104A Starfighter up to the dark unknown—up to the very  edge of space. Kenyon’s photo-realistic painting entitled ‘Scrappy  Soars’ captures that singular moment when Scrappy goes over the top, and  today it hangs in The Pentagon, a fitting tribute to one of our  nation’s military heroes. 

 SCRAPPY is  the official memoir of Scrappy Johnson, an aviator whose amazing career  is chronicled in this fast-paced—sometimes raucous, sometimes sobering,  but always exciting—larger-than-life story that reads like fiction. But  a made-up story it’s not. His is the world of fighter pilots, of men  with nerves forged from steel, a close-knit fraternity of the chosen  few. Fly with Scrappy from his days as an aviation cadet during WWII,  through his tour of duty in the skies over Korea, then later during his  more than one hundred missions over North Vietnam as a senior U.S. Air  Force commander. And during the darkest days of that air war, Scrappy  Johnson was instrumental in the founding of an organization that came to  be known as The River Rats, or, more formally, The Red River Valley  Fighter Pilots Association. What started with a handful of Air Force,  Navy and Marine Corps pilots banding together to honor their fallen and  captured comrades—and to make sure those brave men would never be  forgotten—now, some forty years later, has grown to include five  thousand members worldwide. The mission of the ‘rats’ proudly includes  the sponsoring of a scholarship fund for the children of dead, missing  and captured airmen. Colonel Howard C. "Scrappy" Johnson was elected its  first president. 

 Because of Scrappy's love of country and loyalty to the  Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association--better known as the River  Rats--he has pledged a majority of the proceeds from SCRAPPY to this wonderful organization and its scholarship fund. To learn more about the River Rats, visit their website at www.river-rats.org. 

 Order from your favorite bookstore, the publisher, or Amazon.com.
 

To order from the publisher click on the following link   McFarland and Company, Inc