Recently, a rather attractive book arrived in the mail. Thumbing through it, I noted that all the illustrations were done by the author and looked a bit akin to something I could have sketched. I wondered why they were included in Hump Drivers, an account of American pilots flying over one of the world's most dangerous stretches of territory - the Himalayas (please see advertisement elsewhere in this issue). Then, I started reading and everything made sense. Hump Drivers was written and illustrated by Arthur La Vove, an American aviator participating in the supply flights that were absolutely essential to the eventual defeat of the Japanese Empire during WWII. I was hooked from the first page and completed the book in one read. La Vove was an interesting fellow. Born during 1909, he was actually quite a bit older than the average USAAF WWII pilot but he appears to have been attracted to flying from an early age. Going aloft for the first time at New York's Roosevelt Field, home of many pioneering flights, he would be strongly attracted to a life of adventure.
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