Shortgrass

About this book

Mennonite farm boy Lance Roarks faith is as big as the challenges he faces on his familys drought-ravaged Dust Bowl spread on the old Chisholm Trail. He can also run over around and away from people on the football field and is a natural-born aviator. These abilities lead him to college gridiron glory and bring him into contact with famed aviators Charles Lindbergh and Wiley Post entertainment icons Will Rogers and Bing Crosby best-selling young author John F. Kennedy and President Franklin Roosevelt. As war clouds gather across the seas Lance finds romance first with teenaged Chickasaw cowgirl and stunt flying sensation Sadie Stanton then with beautiful oil heiress Mary Katherine Murchison whose mesmerizing voice carries her to the heights of Big Band Era stardom. Nearly all of this crashes against his pious peaceable ways. And it leads him into the dangerous world of America First the Lindbergh-led organization that opposes the popular Roosevelts covert drive toward American involvement in World War II now ablaze in both Europe and the Pacific. When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor Lance with his lifelong commitment never to raise his hand against another human being faces his ultimate decisionwhether to accept command of a B-17 Flying Fortress in which he would face and inflict mass slaughter in Nazi-occupied Europe amidst historys most fearsome war.