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a Close Thing for the City in 1941,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 2006; Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interview, August 25, 2004; “Entire City Put on War Footing,” NYT, December 8, 1941; “U.S. Cities Prove They Can Swing into Action,” Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), December 8, 1941; Adam Fjell, “ ‘A Day That Will Live in Infamy’: Buffalo County and the Attack on Pearl Harbor,” Buffalo Tales, November–December 2002, vol. 25, no. 6; Goodwin, pp. 295–96.

7 Wake’s defense: Lieutenant Colonel R. D. Heinl, Jr., USMC, The Defense of Wake, Marines in World War II: Historical Monograph (Historical Section, Division of Public Information Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1947).

8 Men on Wake singing: Ken Marvin, telephone interview, January 31, 2005.

9 Louie’s test scores: Certificate of Proficiency, Air Force Preflight School (bombardier, navigator), Ellington Field, from papers of Louis Zamperini.

10 Norden bombsight: William Darron, Army Air Forces Historical Association, Oradell, N.J., interview and bombsight demonstration, courtesy of Robert Grenz, 2004; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; “Bombardiers’ Information File,” War Department, Army Air Forces, March 1945.

11 Twice the price of a house: “The Year 1942,” The People History, http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1942.html (accessed September 11, 2009); “The Norden M-1 Bomb Sight,” Plane Crazy, http://www.plane-crazy.net/links/nord.htm (accessed September 11, 2009).

12 Ephrata: Sam Britt, Jr., The Long Rangers, A Diary of the 307th Bombardment Group (Baton Rouge: Reprint Company, 1990), pp. 4–5.

13 Phillips: Karen Loomis, telephone interview, November 17, 2004; Monroe Bormann, telephone interview, June 7, 2005; Phoebe Bormann, telephone interview, June 7, 2005; Louis Zamperini, telephone interview; Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005; Kelsey Phillips, “A Life Story,” unpublished memoir.

14 Sandblaster: Jesse Stay, telephone interviews, July 23, 2004, and March 16, 2005.

15 Cecy Perry: Karen Loomis, telephone interview, November 17, 2004; Monroe Bormann, telephone interview, June 7, 2005; Phoebe Bormann, telephone interview, June 7, 2005; letters from Russell Phillips to Cecy Perry, 1941–43.

16 Cecy’s ring: Russell Allen Phillips, letters to Cecy Perry, March 11, 21, 1942.

17 “I’ve wished 100 times”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Phillips, summer 1942.

18 Phil’s bomber crew: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 2004, March 9, 2005, and August 18, 2006; Charles McMurtry, “Liberator, Hit 594 Times, Wings Home Safely,” Richmond News Leader, May 14, 1943.

19 Harry Brooks’s fiancée: “Sergt. H. V. Brooks Served in Pacific,” undated article from Phillips scrapbook, NPN.

20 B-24s: Charlie Tilghman, B-24 pilot, Commemorative Air Force, telephone interview, February 14, 2007; Consolidated Aircraft, Flight Manual: B-24D Airplane (1942), Flight Manual for B-24 Liberator, Aircraft Manual Series (Appleton, Wisc.: Aviation Publications, 1977); Martin Bowman, Combat Legend: B-24 Liberator (Shrewsbury, Eng.: Airlife, 2003); Frederick A. Johnsen, B-24 Liberator, Rugged but Right (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999); Fiske Hanley II, telephone interview, July 30, 2004; Byron Kinney, email interview, April 26, 2007.

21 “it was like sitting”: Byron Kinney, email interview, April 26, 2007.

22 Left arms stronger: Stephen E. Ambrose, The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), p. 77.

23 Tails falling off: Johnsen, p. 28.

24 “It’s the Flying Coffin”: Louis Zamperini, telephone interview.

25 Training: Stanley Pillsbury, telephone interviews, August 25, 2004, March 9, 2005, and August 18, 2006.

26 “I grew a little”: Russell Allen Phillips, letter to Cecy Perry, August or September 1942.

27 “I guess you read”: E. C. Williams, letter to Louis Zamperini, July 1, 1941.

28 Stateside crash statistics: Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, World War II, Office of Statistical Control, December 1945, Tables 213 and 214.

29 Deaths