Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer's Life

“Tender, heartwarming, occasionally frightening, and written in a conversational style that invites the reader into his family, Hendrickson pilots this richly illuminating chronicle across Depression-era Kentucky farmlands to flight school and through his father’s deployment in the Pacific and his postwar career as a pilot for Eastern Airlines… An excellent, engrossing work of family and world history that leaves readers thinking in new ways about the consequences of military service.” — James Pekoll, Booklist

“Former journalist and best-selling author of Hemingway’s Boat, Hendrickson recounts the story of Joe Paul Hendrickson, his father…Detailing the challenges of a young military family, Joe Paul’s dangerous wartime missions, and the lingering effects of war, Hendrickson poignantly examines a life and a historic time.” — Library Journal

“[A] detailed, vivid narrative, which benefits from intensive archival research and exhaustive interviews…An expert account of a father’s WWII experiences that gives his fellow airmen equal attention.” — Kirkus Reviews