Leading the Angels - Magda

Dedicated to those who have endured combat and to those who loved them, Johnny Magda's story chronicles one man's experiences in the decade from 1941 to 1951 as Naval Aviation combat was being invented by the brave young pilots behind the stick, perfecting carrier landing, night flying and catapult systems as the planes progressed from the tail-dragger "Yellow Peril" to the Panther jet. Magda flew the Wildcat and the Hellcat in WWII in places now famous, the Doolittle Raid, the Battle of Midway and Guadalcanal. In peacetime that followed he flew the beloved Bearcat, the Fury and the Panther. In 1950 he became the 4th leader of the Blue Angels. Peacetime did not last and on March 8, 1951, Johnny Magda was shot down and killed in action in the Korean War. Leading the Angels is Johnny Magda's story pieced together from a collection of his letters, magazine articles, journals, interviews, internet recollections, and his pilot log book as his daughter the author endeavored to discover and save in one book evidence of a generation of young men who invented aviation warfare at a desperate time for the United States and democracy in the world.