The Gift, by Mike Trahan

A very good friend of mine has written his autobiography, and published the first two of a three volume set. It is titled "The Gift".

This is available through the Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, or from the author.

Mike Trahan is one of those "salt of the Earth" guys, the type that makes you proud and thankful to be an American. Mike is a full blood Cajun from West Orange, in East Texas bayou country. He was the school football hero, who went on to become an Air Force pilot. His memories of growing up in small town America, playing ball, and chasing the girls reads like a Norman Rockwell painting of a better time in our history. The first book contains his boyhood activities and being the "airport kid", earning his money for flying lessons by mowing lawns, and working his way up through being a young 18 year old commercial pilot. Volume one ends with Mike graduating Air Force UPT.

Volume two, which I just finished an hour ago, takes us on every flight he made in the brand new C-141, and then dozens of dangerous missions flying the AC-47 "Spooky" gunship in 1968-69. Mike's skill and accuracy flying the AC-47 single-handedly saved four sailors in a Navy gunboat that was trapped in a small coastal inlet surrounded by hostiles. He later saved an entire Special Forces forward base that had been totally over-run by hostiles INSIDE the compound, with the SF soldiers trapped in the bunkers.

I highly recommend these two books. Mike recounts all of his missions with an incredible memory for detail, and a heartfelt personal view. No fancy literary gymnastics, no soaring rhetoric, no gut-wrenching emotional fireworks. Just a solid, interesting, and honest account of how it was serving in the Air Force as a transport and combat gunship pilot.

I'm honored to know him and call him a friend. You will be too.

Bill / EZ Flap

Looks like a great read with many positive reviews. Also available on Amazon in print or electronically.