McCampbell's Heroes; The Story of the U.S. Navy's Celebrated Carrier Fighters of the Pacific War

New York: Avon, 1984. First Avon Printing [stated]. Mass market paperback. Fair. xvi, 272 pages. Illustrations. Index. Introduction by Captain David McCampbell, U.S.N. (Ret.) Cover worn, torn and soiled. Edwin Palmer Hoyt (August 5, 1923 - July 29, 2005) was an American writer who specialized in military history. Until 1958, Hoyt worked in news media, after which he produced non-fiction works. Hoyt served with the Office of War Information during World War II, from 1943 to 1945. In 1945 and 1946, he served as a foreign correspondent for The Denver Post and the United Press, reporting from locations in China, India, the Middle East, North Africa, and Korea. Hoyt worked as an ABC broadcaster, covering the 1948 revolution in Czechoslovakia and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In the 40 years since his first publication (1960), he published nearly 200 works. The majority of his works are biographies and other non-fiction, with a heavy emphasis on World War II military history. Led by Captain David McCampbell, the daring fighter pilots of the "Fabled Fifteen" spearheaded the American drive to regain control of the Pacific during the Second World War. This stirring history tells why Air Group 15 was one of the most highly decorated air groups of the war, participating in the action at Marcus and Wake Islands, the Marianas, Iwo Jima, Formosa, and Okinawa as well as the two major air/sea battles in the Philippines and Leyte Gulf. McCampbell is the United States Navy's all-time leading flying ace and top F6F Hellcat ace with 34 aerial victories. He was the third-highest American scoring ace of World War II and the highest-scoring American ace to survive the war. He also set a world single mission aerial combat record of shooting down nine enemy planes in one mission, on October 24, 1944, at the beginning of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in the Philippines.