Tommy

This autobiography is about a member of the "greatest generation," a life that began during the First World War and experienced the Great Depression, World War II and the half century since. It is not strictly a chronology, but a telling of events selected for their interest and meaning. In the first of four parts, author William T. White, "Tommy," describes 18 years of pre-World War II life in an Arizona mining town, complete with its substantial race prejudice against Mexicans and even those non-Mexicans who lived where Mexicans lived. Tommy tells of an even more powerful prejudice, variously religious and pseudo- scientific, directed against him and his family because of his sister's epilepsy. Part II describes the author's experiences in World War II, first as a B-17 navigator flying from England and North Africa, and then serving in the Pacific as a radar-bombardier for the B-29 attacks on Japan. Part III covers twenty-years service as a regular Air Force officer, including three action packed years as a military attach in Communist Yugoslavia during the cold war. Part IV describes a post-military academic career that, from many points of view, contained events that are as interesting or even more so than those in military life. Most of the chapters in the book are preceded by a brief small-print note that is a brief quotation or personal comment usually relating to an event described in the chapter. Taken together, these notes constitute a theme, both for the book and for the author's working life. That theme is essentially that good and effective human organizations are those that are based fully on truth and sublimated to the combined best interests of those who own them, work in them and/or are served by them.