To FLY and FIGHT

Inscribed and signed on the front end paper by

Colonel Bud Anderson
General Chuck Yeager

St Martin’s Press First Edition, first printing October 1990.  300 pages and well illustrated with photos

Fine condition hardback book in white boards with gilt titles. The unclipped dust jacket is also in Fine condition.  The book is clean, bright and tight and is altogether a very pleasing copy.  There is a discreet blind stamp on the half title page which shows that the book’s previous owner was a former USN aviator who was a well known figure in the aircraft preservation and warbird community.

To Fly and Fight is the story of a boy who grew up living his dream. During World War II Anderson flew with Chuck Yeager in the famed 357th Squadron where he became a triple ace in his Mustang ‘Old Crow’. Following World War II, Anderson became a test pilot and later commanded jet fighter squadrons in South Korea and Okinawa. Then, in 1970, at an age when most pilots have long-since retired, Anderson flew combat strikes over Vietnam as a Wing Commander in F-105s.

Chuck Yeager wrote the foreword to this book and from the mouth of one of the most famous pilots of all time his comment about Anderson is one heck of an accolade; “In an airplane, the guy was a mongoose ~ the best fighter pilot that I ever saw” .

50 years after the end of WWII, Anderson and Yeager took to the skies together again in P51 Mustangs painted in their wartime colours ~ Old Crow and Glamorous Glen.

A great book with a great pair of signatures.