Memories of the Mind

About the Book

We were indeed in deep trouble. The Monsoon rains were horrendous, with heavy clouds and rain reaching far down to the ground. We couldn’t land, leaving two very difficult alternatives; bail out now, hopefully in the vicinity of our China base (and not a lake), or fly west, over the Hump, in hopes of finding a safe place to land in the Assam Valley of India. We had enough fuel and hence made the fateful decision not to bail out and to chance a flight over the Himalayan Mountains once again. What we would face over the Hump was hard to predict, given the lack of communication and weather stations in that part of the world. Well, we found out very suddenly when the turbulence hit us. The aircraft was thrown about a lot, with updrafts and down drafts of thousands of feet. It was quite a challenge keeping the airplane under control. My seat and seatbelt alternatively felt the stresses with my stomach caught up in the middle. How I then wished that we had chosen to bail out.

About the Author

Jack Z Stettner brings a lifetime of worldly experiences to his latest writings. His latest addition includes feature articles published monthly in Aviation Digest. Entitled, No Longer Current, it features vignettes from his books and articles. All of his prior writing has been non-fiction and have drawn deep praise by his wartime buddies, for his ‘unusual ability to remember so very much and with such precision.’

This book, Memories of the MIND represents his first novel. Yet it comes to us with equal comment, because while fiction, so much of it is truly realistic. He attributes this to a growing inability to tell the difference.

Jack’s lifetime started almost eighty years ago when he was born in 1923 and brought up in New York. His thirst for adventure seems to have been born with him. At the age of three he enjoyed his first flight as his uncles lifted him over their heads in his big toy airplane and he declared his determination to learn to fly, “as soon as my legs are long enough to reach the pedals.”

He did, but it took a little longer. He was one of the very many of that era to be called upon to literally ‘save the world.’ His combat experiences as a B-24 pilot in China are described in his book, Memories of the Jing Bao and Beyond. The book also discusses the airline he started, flying United Nations relief into occupied Europe in 1946 when the Russians began to shoot down US Army C-47s.

Jack was awarded the Air Medal, with Oak Leaf Cluster and Distinguished Flying Cross, also with Oak Leaf Cluster, a Unit Presidential Citation, and a Special Treasury Department Citation for war bond tour achievements. His crew was credited with sinking seven ships confirmed and one probable.

In 2000, two unexploded WWII bombs, discovered during road construction in Hong Kong, were traced to his ‘mission 190’; the report of which had been just recently declassified. Jack described the events of mission 190 fifty four years after the fact in his book; it is amazing how closely his recollections correlated to the details in the mission report. Jack received full page treatment by the Chinese media in Hong Kong fifty plus years after the event.

Jack received his Engineering Degree and his professional career culminated in setting up and conducting international operations around the world for a major U.S. corporation. Most significant in his life is the wonderful family he and his wife Dorothy are so blessed to enjoy every day. They have one daughter, two sons, and three absolutely wonderful grandchildren.