Over the Hump: the Coming of Age of 2Lt. Henry Watson

By Jack Watson

A 79 year old man with Alzheimer's disease makes an unguarded statement that sends his son on a five year search to find the truth about his father's service during World War II. Was it the relatively safe adventure his father's war stories implied when he shared them with his family and friends? Or was it something entirely different? Over the Hump: the Coming of Age of 2Lt. Henry Watson is the story of a troubled youth who barely graduated high school who takes advantage of the country's desperate need for pilots at the start of World War II to fulfill a life-long dream of becoming a flyer. Based on extensive research including recently declassified military accident reports, and letters his father wrote to his wife while overseas, Jack Watson ushers the reader through a 22 year journey that takes Henry from a privileged upbringing in Ridgewood, New Jersey to the jungles of Burma. Along the way he meets the girl of his dreams who he marries after a whirlwind romance just weeks before shipping off to the backwater struggle in the largely forgotten China-Burma-India Theater. Although originally disappointed at being assigned to fly transports instead of fighters or bombers, Henry quickly learns that air dropping food and munitions to allied troops behind Japanese lines in Burma, and ferrying supplies to China over the most dangerous air route in the world, is much more than he bargained for.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1501057952
• ISBN13: 9781501057953
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"