Earl J. McGill

BIOs

Raised in a police barracks during the Great Depression, I attended St. Joseph's Catholic school and Sharon HS before moving from Pennsylvania to Colorado after my stepfather was liberated from a German prison camp. I spent my junior year in West HS, Denver and graduated from Fort Collins HS. Shortly after graduation I joined the Air Force (with six bucks in my wallet), became a weather observer, then forecaster, and won my wings in Dec.1950. I flew 28 combat missions out of Okinawa in the right seat of a B-29, and survived a crash on takeoff. After the Korean War tour I was assigned to Davis-Monthan AFB. While stationed in Tucson, I met and married a Montoursville PA girl, Eleanor Beeghley. As the B-29 was being phased out, I attended Navigator/Bombardier School to become a "three-headed monster," a qualification requirement for flying SAC's spanking new jet bomber. In the six years that I piloted the RB-47E at Forbes AFB, Topeka, KS, I advanced from copilot to instructor pilot. At age 28, as near as I can determine, I was the youngest multi-engine jet instructor pilot in the Air Force--perhaps in the world. All three of my sons were born in Topeka and delivered by William Roy, a future United States Congressman. In 1960 I was reassigned to B-52s based at Biggs AFB, El Paso, followed by Carswell AFB, Ft. Worth, TX. We survived the Cuban Missile Crisis, nuclear alert, and Arc Light combat operations in Vietnam to retire from the AF in 1969. Subsequently, I earned an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Arizona and taught writing and English at Tucson High School.

After retiring a second time, I began writing in earnest. While in the service I'd won a number of short story contests, and had a short mystery published in Cosmopolitan while teaching. After several false starts, St. Martin's Press published my mystery novel, Immaculate in Black, under the prestigious Thomas Dunne imprint. The book received commendable reviews from such divergent publications as Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Cat Fancy, and the ACBL (Bridge) Bulletin. In spite of favorable reviews, and selling out in its first printing, St. Martin's declined the sequel (re-titled Smoke and Ashes on KDP). During this period I learned that crime (fiction) doesn't pay nearly as well as nonfiction, so I switched. An article in VFW Magazine led to my first published nonfiction book about a forgotten air battle in the Korean War titled, Black Tuesday Over Namsi. As a result of Black Tuesday's appeal, I was contracted to write Jet Age Man: SAC B-47 and B-52 Operations in the Early Cold War, a book based on personal flying experiences. An updated, revised hardcover edition of Black Tuesday was published by Helion Books UK in April, 2012, followed by Jet Age Man in September. Both books are also available for the Kindle.

In addition to writing, I built a corner cupboard, became a bridge life master, and ran a couple of web sites, including B-29s in the Korean War. I also consider myself the luckiest man alive.

My idea of heaven would be fly-fishing forever on Slough Creek, Yellowstone National Park, Montana.