Bruning celebrates a handful of larger-than-life World War II fighter pilots and brings them to our attention once again.

With deft, grit, and no shying away from the horrifying realities of war, Bruning brings these heroes back to life, defining the struggles of morality, mortality, and glory that suffused their careers. On par with James Bradley’s Flyboys, and rich with historical information, Race of Aces reads like a novel and features interactions with figures such as Eddie Rickenbacker and Charles Lindbergh. Bruning’s suspenseful storytelling utilizes personal interviews with U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) veterans, oral histories, archives, military history agencies, and letters/diaries written by the aces themselves to flesh out life in the Southwest Pacific and the fever pitch to both survive in theatre and become the best of the best.

... fascinates because of its attention to detail and strong characterization of these remarkable men. Mr. Bruning has been studying these pilots for two decades. We get to know their strengths, their driving ambitions and their foibles, as well as their loves and hopes in their private lives, so that they come across as real, three-dimensional individuals—not easy to pull off with a collection of 20-something young men, most of whom were killed before the war was over..

Bruning delivers a wide-angled view of the careers of America’s top WWII fighter pilots in this encyclopedic work.

... overstuffed.