The Book

Carl Gamble, a premier airline pilot, has penned a remarkable memoir, powerful story about his journey from the cotton fields of Madison County, Alabama to the captain’s seat flying jumbo jets between North America and Europe.  While in grade school, Gamble was inspired by jet fighters flying over Madison from a nearby Air Force Base and his dream to become a pilot was born.  Gamble’s hard and focused work overcame an inauspicious start studying aviation at Tennessee State University,  a stepping stone toward a flying career for African Americans of small means in the 1960s.  A man of slight build,  he used ingenuity and overcame the Air Force’s physical requirements for candidates entering pilot training.

bookcover2 Quick thinking and superior flying skills enabled Gamble to save the lives of his crew in Vietnam.  His is a heroic story of a pilot and aircraft commander whose airplane was severely disabled by enemy anti-aircraft fire.  For saving his crew,   he was awarded the Air Force’s coveted Distinguished Flying Cross.

My Blue Yonder tells Gamble’s story by taking you to his boyhood home, into the cockpit of his crippled plane, and into his PTSD.  You fly with him to rescue men adrift on an ice floe in Lake Superior, refuel combat aircraft at four hundred miles per hour over the Gulf of Tonkin, and negotiate with a hijacker while flying in a holding pattern off the coast of Florida.

A memorable quote passed through generations of pilots and a favorite of Gamble’s is, “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots.”  Similarly, there are pilots who have landed burning airplanes and there are pilots who have been hijacked.  Gamble is potentially the first pilot to experience both. Read an excerpt

Buy NOW!

 

 

AUDIOBOOK now available. Purchase for just $29.99 USD. Listen via mobile app or web browser. PLAY SAMPLE.