High Flying

Alessio Baggio

The Bomber Boys 
by Travis L. Ayres

Have you ever imagined flying thousands of feet in the air for endless hours every day? Have you ever seen your own friends crash and burn? This was the nightmare for the thousands of young boys who sacrificed and risked their lives as bombers during WWII. The Bomber Boys covers the story of 5 boys that risked their lives during WWII as bombers, but I will be covering the story of one of them. Anthony Teta, who is a flight navigator for his B-17 Flying Fortress. The story follows him as a young boy with hopes and dreams to a hardened man scarred by the brutality of war. As a young boy, Tony was amazed by aircraft and animals. When Tony was able to get enough money he would spend his time by buying model plane kits and homing pigeons.  One day he even brought his pet snake on his bus as a harmless prank but ended up having to evacuate the bus. This didn't make his bus driver happy. By the time Tony was 17 he had already joined the US air corps.


    Months had past and Tony had scored high in mathematics. This placed him as a flight navigator. In training, he learned how to cope with the stress on board and how to stay sane, as well as emergency preparedness. The time then finally came when he was shipped off to Europe and was assigned to his flight crew where he was positioned on a B-17 Flying Fortress. During his time as a navigator, he and his crew would do multiple bombing missions over Europe many of them being over Germany in towns like Cologne and Berlin.

Overall looking over the book I really enjoyed it. Ordinary routines and daily observations are described in detail throughout the book. In my opinion, this may be a coping mechanism for dealing with the very stressful and dangerous job of a bomber, this means putting other's lives in danger. To focus you must look at what's next and not what is happening in retrospect. When Tony went out on raids he never really mentioned how he felt when he bombed the towns and cities and who he was hurting. To survive he never really thought who he was affecting he just thought about what's next and what he has to do to make it back.

This book really spoke to me because it showed a perspective of a life that is completely different than mine is. It really gives you a perspective of how thankful you are for all the blessing you have to not have to be burdened with the consequences of a war. The book also showed me how the boy was just a few years older than I am and how if a war like that was to happen today I might be in his position. It really makes you think of how a conflict on just our little planet can cause so much damage to so many people.

This book stuck out to me the most because first of all I love reading and learning about WWII but it also relates back to my family. My grandfather was born in 1928 in Italy, as a young boy his hometown was invaded by the Nazi’s and Fascists forcing him and his family to live under a dictatorship. He has told me many stories when he was a kid and this really struck my interest into the war.

Given the choice, I would recommend this book to my friends because it's not just a story, it’s someone's story. Everyday veterans of the war are passing away and if books like this weren’t published, who would tell their story. For all the sacrifice they have given us, the best we can do to pay it back is spread their story of heroism and inspire the next generation of heroes. When recommending this book, I would say that if you are into WWII novels or just out like planes, this is the book for you. It can also interest people who enjoy historical nonfiction.