Hopeless Times and Dreams of Flight - Introduction

Aviation runs through my family. My grandfather Robert W. Smith, serving as a paratrooper during the aftermath of World War II, descended into the rubble of Japan in 1947 and left behind for his children a copy of his letters to home. Reading these letters makes me smile wide and causes my heart to flutter - sometimes, I recognize the thoughts he composed as my own. 

My grandfather opens this collection of letters with a short introduction: "I have given a copy of this to each of my three children, Tim, Robin, and Adam, with the request that at some appropriate time in the future, they let their progeny (and their progeny's progeny) read it, if they will. If I am right-that we are the sum of all who have gone before-then perhaps these letters will satisfy in them at least a little of that which remains unsatisfied in me."

For this course's final project, I will be examining the lives of aviators prior to the onset of World War II and examine what propelled these individuals to the skies, kept them grounded, and the means by which they overcame these challenges. If my grandfather was right in stating that people are "the sum of all who have gone before," then the American spirit - one undeterred by any obstacle - that thrived within these men and drove their dreams of flight into reality exist within us as well.