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Lieutenant Colonel Wallace H. Little,
USAF (ret.) is the author of Call to Honor and a co-author of Tiger Sharks!
Lieutenant Colonel Wallace H. Little said of his military career, “I entered military service (US Army, as there
was no USAF at that time) on 6 July 1942, at Camp Dix, near Trenton, NJ, and there, went through infantry
basic training. In September, I was transferred to the US Army Air Corps (there was no US Air Force until
September 1947), entering flight training, and, graduating on 28 May 1943 (Class 43-E), rated a pilot and commissioned a second
lieutenant (the youngest in the Army at that time). Following this, many of my classmates and I were Shanghaied
into the Training Command as flight instructors. We wiggled out of that and into fighter training in May
1944, at Bartow, Florida, training in the best fighter in the world-the North American P-51. In October
of that year, we were sent overseas, ending up in China. I was assigned to the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd
Fighter Group, 14th Air Force, Major General Claire L. Chennault, Commanding. I flew my first combat with
my unit on 14 December 1944.
In July 1968, I was sent to Vietnam,
and had the simple pleasure of being shot at without being allowed to shoot back. Deliver me from
politicians who put us in a war, then won’t let us win it! While there, I was promoted to Lieutenant
Colonel. Returning to the US in July 1969, and reporting to my new assignment at Kelly AFB, San Antonio,
Texas, one September morning, I received a call from Personnel: I was to report there and sign my papers for retirement.
What? I hadn’t put in for retirement. But it seems that Mr. Nixon had volunteered me for it.
So on 31 March 1970, I bid my last farewell to military service, moved to Marshall, in East Texas.”
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According to the book description of
Called To Honor, “Based on his own experiences as a very young fighter pilot in China in WWII,
this book is a glimpse into what it took to become a fighter pilot in that era. From a very immature high school graduate
to his first combat patrols in the famous P-51, Wally spares few details of these experiences. Fighting under the famous Claire
Chennault, the legendary leader of the Flying Tigers of the American Volunteer Group (the AVG), this book takes place in the
time just after the disbanding of that group. Flying in the same outfit as some of those now-famous fighter pilots and aces
of WWII, Wally shows what it was like to face death from the elements, the enemy and sometimes even his own recklessness.
If you like reading about WWII, and especially about fighters, this book will help fill in some of the gaps for you.”
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