Barbara Evans Kinnear

** Colonel Richard Ernest Evans, Author **

Richard Ernest Evans was born in Knoxville, TN, in 1919 to William and Helen Evans. He spent his childhood participating in the Boy Scouts of America, hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains, drilling in the Knoxville High School ROTC, and learning to fly with the Tennessee Air National Guard. In his third year at the University of Tennessee, Richard was accepted to Flying Cadet School and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in December 1939. It was during this training that he earned the nickname "Richard Eager."

In January 1943, Captain Evans entered WWII and served in combat in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. As a B-17 bomber pilot with the 99nth BG, over the next two years, Captain Evans flew fifty-four missions in North Africa, Italy, and German-held territories in Europe. Notably, he was selected to fly British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery throughout North Africa, Malta, Sicily, and Italy. Major Evans was then trained to pilot the B-29, flew one mission over Japan under General Lemay's command, and while stationed in Okinawa, witnessed the end of the war.

After WWII, Richard began a career in life insurance and joined the California Air National Guard. At the start of the Korean War, Lt. Colonel Evans was recalled to active duty as a Deputy Director of Operations for the USAF Strategic Air Command (SAC). During the Cold War, he was promoted to Colonel and commanded the B-58 Ops Evaluation & Training Squadron. Upon leaving active duty in 1959, Richard worked with North American Aircraft Company and later consulted on the development of the B-1 and C-54. Over the course of his military career, Colonel Evans piloted a range of planes including the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-25 Mitchell, B-29 Superfortress, B-47 Stratojet, B-52 Stratofortress, and B-58 Hustler.

In the last decades of his life and with the encouragement of his children, Richard began writing his boyhood memories, WWII stories, and organized iconic photographs, primary letters, orders and more with the intent of publishing a book. Colonel Evans died in 2006 without publishing his book, but his family vowed to do so.

** Barbara Evans Kinnear, Co-Author **

Barbara "Bobbie" Evans Kinnear graduated from Texas Christian University in 1967 with a BS degree in nursing science. Her medical career included specialties in pediatric burn care, operating and recovery room supervisor and Director of Nursing for a large medical clinic.

As a proud "air force brat", Barbara spent her childhood in many states. Today, she calls California home. Since 1973, she lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, John. They have one daughter, Katie. From her early age, her father, Colonel Richard Ernest Evans, instilled in her a deep love of family and history. In the preface to this book, she writes, "Throughout my childhood, my brother and I would listen to our father's accounts of his flying and travels. In my adulthood, his stories took on greater detail as he revisited memories and friendships long past and recounted his childhood upbringing with fondness. He was a wonderful storyteller."

Through the publication of this book, Barbara is honored to share her father's honest, humorous, heartfelt, and historical stories. She hopes her father's writings will add to history and encourage others to tell their stories as well.