Lightning Sky; A U.S. Fighter Pilot Captured during WWII and His Father's Quest to Find Him, by R.C. George, with a foreword by Marcus Brotherton, is my book club pick for June.
Most of us could never imagine what it would be like to be a parent during war time and hear that your child had been taken prisoner by the enemy. We thank God for that.
But in 1944, with WWII waging, that’s exactly what Lieutenant Colonel Vaughn MacArthur, a chaplain with the 8th Armored Division of Patton’s Third Army was told regarding his son, David.
“October 6, 1944. Twenty-year-old Army Air Corps Second Lieutenant David “Mac” Warren MacArthur was on a strafing mission over Greece when a round of 88-mm German anti-aircraft flak turned his P-38 Lightning into a comet of fire and smoke. Dave parachuted to safety as the Lightning lived up to her name and struck the Adriatic Sea like a bolt of flames. In minutes, he was plucked from the water—only to find himself on the wrong end of a German rifle pointing straight at his head.”
The chaplain refused to give the safe return of his son over to the winds of fate and vowed to find him. It would (obviously) not be an easy task, as David was moved from war camp to war camp, and his dad tried desperately to keep up. The cycle of hope and heartbreak would deter even the most resilient of people, but not Chaplain MacArthur.
While I started this by saying we couldn’t image what receiving the news that the chaplain did would be like, I believe we could imagine the overwhelming joy and relief, when in May of 1945, while standing on the outside of the barbed wire fence encircling Stalag VII-A in Moosburg, Germany, he yelled David’s name into the crowd of POW’s and was rewarded by a very familiar face turning toward him…
Lightning Sky, my book club pick for this month (the month of Father’s Day and many graduations by-the-way) is an inspiring, true story of wartime, faith, family, and the incredible power of love. It’s a testament to ordinary people, who, due to circumstances they’d never imagine, find themselves involved in extraordinary acts.
Pick up a copy for yourself, for Dad, or anyone who you feel would be inspired by this tale.
GET IT HERE
You can also find out more about this incredible author, R.C. George, on the book’s web page HERE.