Cowboy Down: A WWII Marine Fighter Pilot's Story

My Dad was a corsair pilot and I ordered this book primarily because Bud details the path taken by many Marine Corps pilots to the cockpit of a single seat fighter. Just like Bud my dad initially trained as a student in CPT in 1942, Lone Pine California. He was in St. Mary's preflight training during the same time with Bud. After graduating my Dad went to NAS in Los Alamitos for primary flight training. However, they both ended up at Corpus Christi Texas at the same time for naval aviation training. My dad earned his golden wings in July 1943 and from there onto NAS Miami Florida. He was thereafter assigned to VMF 112 Wolf Pack in Santa Barbara after a short stint at El Toro. He wasn't there long before he became reassigned to VMF 441 "Blackjacks" where he spent a year flying strikes against bypassed Japanese islands in the Marshall islands. He was called the and flu with VMF326 "Death Rattlers" during the Korean War. I did not have much of a history on training this told me exactly what I needed to know. Excellent book. Semper Fi!!

The beginning is interesting, exciting and informative. However, toward the end, far too much non-military, non flying, civilian life experience is injected into the narrative, that in my opinion greatly detracts from an otherwise good read.

Much more personal information was given about the men who flew and those who supported them than the usual book . This helped to round out the experience of seeing and being there with the author. j.

persolal interest and value - thanks!

This story is in part about squadron leader MAJ Bob Stout (Marine Ace) who was a close family friend. Enjoyed it very much.

Bud Daniel was my baseball coach at the Universpity of Wyoming. It was great to read about his Great War experience. We have been friends for 63 years. The delivery time and condition was g

One of the best books to read on the subject. Very pleasant to read and full of anecdotes about the life of a Marine Corps pilot in WWII.Thank you for your service to our country sir!

Excellent book. I have read almost all WWII books with personal accounts so there were a lot of similarities but I still enjoyed reading it.

Inspiring writing. Congratulations and thanks to one of the USA's real heroes !

One third interesting... two third boring and too much for family only