Say Hello to "Satin Doll"
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Harvey Gage could hardly believe his eyes. This was the first time he had seen enemy aircraft since he had been overseas. Harvey Keyed his microphone and spoke in the most relaxed sounding voice he could muster. “Bull Dog Leader, we got bandits. “Bandits! Better clean off your goggles and take another look, Daddy-O,” Joe Rockford said with a chuckle. “There are no such things as bandits, on the missions they send us on.” “I think the boys’ been breathing bottled oxygen too long,” Sherman Miller chimed in sarcastically. Ricky searched the air space just ahead and below him and was both shocked and somewhat elated at what he observed. He spoke sternly over the radio to his flight while his eyes continued to track the enemy planes that were heading toward the southwest. “You guys need to shut up and take a good look!” he shouted into his microphone. “They’re Stukas! German dive-bombers! I count four. How many do you see, Gage?” “That’s what I’m looking at too, Bull Dog One,” Gage replied calmly. “ I don’t think they’ve seen us yet,” Ricky said. “Where do you think they’re headed?” Gage asked. As Ricky’s eyes followed the formation of unfriendly planes, he noticed small puffs of gray smoke belching from their engine exhausts. That could mean only one thing. They were cutting back on power in order to slow down. Suddenly it dawned on him. The Stukas had located their target! Ricky hastily yelled to his men over the radio. “Bull Dog Flight, Switch to channel eight right now and give me a radio check, on the double!” “After the other three fighter pilots quickly switched channels and checked in with their flight leader, Ricky put in a radio call to the regiment that was pinned down near Checkpoint Charlie-9. “Tomahawk Seven. This is Bull Dog Leader. Come in, please!” The urgent sound in Ricky’s voice was all too obvious to Colonel Stillman’s radio operator. “This is Tomahawk Seven. Go ahead Bull Dog Leader,” the radioman answered. “Tomahawk Seven have your men take cover, NOW!” Ricky shouted frantically.
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About the Book
SYNOPSIS Say Hello to Satin Doll is an exciting new novel that will take you on a journey back through the events of World War II as seen through the eyes of a group of African-American pilots and crewmen trained at Tuskegee Army Flying School. Bursting with action and high adventure, Say Hello to Satin Doll is a nostalgic and heart-warming story of the famous 332nd Fighter group known as the “REDTAILS”. Here is a powerful story of unwavering courage under fire. Here too is a story of family, strong friendships and true romance. The adventure begins during the summer of 1943 in the torrid desert region of North Africa. Ricky DeWitt and the rest of the men of the all Black 99th Fighter Squadron, get their first taste of aerial combat over the Italian Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. After his first few months of combat, Ricky is shot down and wounded. After he parachutes into the sea, a British war ship rescues Ricky. While recovering from his wounds in Morocco he meets PJ Keller, a white U.S. Air Corps pilot and they form a solid and uncommon friendship. Together they discover a number of new ways to exploit their black and white partnership and play against the ridged segregated society of that time. Ricky, PJ, and their many exceptional friends, take you along on a tempestuous but magnificent excursion that will carry them from romance among the stars in Hollywood, to the closing battles in the skies over Europe and beyond. Amos Smith’s first novel is written with such a visual flair that you will experience Europe during the war years first hand. It will place you smack in the middle of all the action, in both the battle against the Nazis as well as the wartime home front during the swing and jazz era of the 1940’s. Say Hello to Satin Doll is the story about the Tuskegee Airmen everyone has been waiting to read!
About the Author
Amos Smith is a licensed pilot and US Army, Vietnam Veteran. He was a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated where he served on the Historical Committee. As an employee of the St. Louis Public Schools, he taught classes in Black History and Aviation as well as the physics of flight for elementary and middle school students. Amos was also a member of the Board of Advisors for the St. Louis SEMAA program, (Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy) a project of NASA’s John Glenn Research Center.