Author: Edna May J. Hill
Softcover
 
Book description
The book The Man Who Loved Flying is a biographical sketch of Colonel LeRoy Gray Heston, a pilot who lived during the period of 1903-1982. He was born in Grants Pass, OR and attended the University of Michigan, where he played football, following in the footsteps of his uncle, "Willie" Heston, the famous twice All-American halfback. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1929, received his wings in February 1931, but following the release to inactive status during the Depression, he went to the Phillippines, where he joined two other pilots in establishing an inter-islands airline. After four years of flying over the jungle islands in extremely hazardous conditions, he went on to Kunming, China on contract with Colonel C.L. Chennault to help train young Chinese pilots. From May 1938 until his contract was complete in December 1940, he was a part of Chennault's earliest group of volunteers. He was stationed in the small isolated villages along the uncompleted Burma Road, among the clans of Chinese people whose lives were being invaded by the building of the Road. Already the Japanese were beginning their attacks upon strategic points, foretelling the coming of WWII.
 
Heston served during the War at Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento and the Fourteenth Air Force in China under General Chennault. In 1944 he had been assigned to MacArthur's staff to prepare for the invasion of Japan. Following the War he received assignments at the Pentagon, the Air War College, as Air Attache in Taiwan, and to serve proudly on the faculty of the Air War College. He and his wife, Pearl, returned to Southern Oregon to build his dream house for their retirement years- not altogether the serene and peaceful experience he had the right to expect, however.