Major Lewis Allen Lambert, USAF (ret.) is a “retired military officer who has participated in numerous newsworthy events during the past 45 years. His experience spans the cold war era to Vietnam where he served during the 1968 TET offensive. As a media relations consultant he was involved with the embedded media program during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Mr. Lambert’s interest in 20th century military history was piqued early in his life when he became enthralled with British-made war movies circa 1939-1955. Noted historian, impassioned orator, and professor Dr. Gordon W. Prange, the author of Tora, Tora, Tora, Miracle at Midway and At Dawn We Slept, motivated Mr. Lambert to pursue his interests in events surrounding the Second World War.

According to the book description of Uncommon Warrior, “Not all war heroes have had their stories told. Many lived and died in anonymity. Uncommon Warrior, the sequel to Michael’s Messengers, continues to recount the many extraordinary World War II accomplishments of ordinary airmen during the Battle of Britain and the liberation of Europe.

Jack Meadows, a Polish born, naturalized American, embodies the countless acts of selfless courage as a fighter pilot. He symbolizes the untold stories of airmen who flew both conventional and unconventional operations.

As a 19-year old naturalized American, Jack returned to his native Poland to fly with the Polish Air Force in 1939. He fled to England where he became the RAF’s leading ace and the youngest wing commander. He led the RAF’s Polish Air Force wing in 1943 and the Allied air forces’ elimination of the Luftwaffe threat over Normandy prior to D-Day.

The end of the war should have been the beginning of Jack’s new life. He finally found his true love, was engaged to be married, and had an unlimited future as a political figure in his adopted country; Great Britain. But fate stepped in again to thwart Jack’s quest for love and tranquility. 

Michael’s Messengers is a story of a young Polish-American who comes of age during the world’s darkest hours. He fights for his adopted country and becomes a national hero. Oddly, that country is not America, but Great Britain. How he got there and how he rose to become one of the best fighter pilots in RAF, is Michael’s Messengers.

Uncommon Warrior begins in 1943, when young Jack assumes a leadership position in the RAF. He rises rapidly in rank and gains the attention and admiration of many of Britain’s wartime leaders. Jack is reunited with father and begins to form a relationship that was meant to be. He continues to pursue the woman he loves but whom he knows will never make him the center of her universe.  Again he experiences abandonment and mental anguish. He begins to question whether his daring aerial exploits, more than often at tremendous risks, are subliminal attempts to end his life. His closest friend, a man who Jack confides in like a brother, believes that Jack has a deep-seated death wish. As the war ends in Europe, Jack’s premonition that he won’t see the end of the war is where Uncommon Warrior captures our imagination with doubts as to whether Jack survives.

According to the book description of Michael’s Messengers, “In 1931, just three months after his mother's untimely death, 11-year-old Jacob Grunfeld and his father fled Poland on the eve of Hitler's rise to power in Germany. For eight years he lived the American dream in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland where he resided with his German-born father a noted thoracic surgeon. Fearing anti-Semitism, even in America, Jacob's father changed their surname to Meadows and young Jacob became Jack Meadows. During high school Jack learned to fly and discovered a passion that consumed him for the rest of his life. Jack was an extremely exceptional student both in the air and on the ground. Jack graduated college with honors at 18 years of age.

In 1942, Jack was selected to command the 1st Polish Air Force Wing, one of the many foreign units that were an integral part of RAF. In 1939-40, when they were reconstituted in Britain, the Poles distinguished themselves and played a significant role in defeating the Luftwaffe while the Nazis were ravaging their native country. Jack met the love of his life who eventually left him, and met the passion of his life who disappointed him. The women he dearly loved abandoned him. He risked his life for a country that adopted him. He challenged the Luftwaffe whose fiercely skilled pilots had much in common with him. Though Jack was Polish by birth, American by choice and British by fate, he was a German in all other respects thanks to his father.”