GROUNDED: How One Man Made it Through the Unimaginable 

I know myself well enough that when asked to which proverbial group I belong, talkers or listeners, I hit the listeners group – bullseye. Point being, I’m a really good listener. Listeners not only know when someone is ‘stringing some yarn’, but they also record when something has already been said. I’ve known Lad Doctor personally for ten years – not once has he repeated a story. Not once. That makes Lad an amazing storyteller, but it also means he has the material from which to tell those stories. “Lad, what was it like to fly the P-51, or the P-47 or the Me 109 Messerschmitt?” “Lad, how did you get into the Air Race arena?” “Lad, the Vigilante had to be tough to bring aboard the boat.” Any one of those topics, let alone a slew of others … well, they’re a listeners’ delight.

One of the things I love about aviation is its breadth of field. Stretch the idea a little and you can get from general aviation homebuilts to the edges of space: stall speed of 50 knots to speeds I find difficult to comprehend. In creating this notion we have to associate people with events. Some were capable of X, some only got to Y. To my way of measuring, there were none more elite than the subject of this book – Lad Doctor. Youth of intrigue, Vietnam era Naval Aviator (in the Vigilante!), southern California banker, real estate developer, Reno Air Race Instructor & Check-Airman, Flight Museum Chief Pilot. Cuss out loud, he even suffered his fate with poise, and class, and style. Remote Control airplane pilot, firearms master and small-town Texas building committee member.

I didn’t even scratch the surface.

If you’re only an arm-chair fan of the amazing field of aviation – and its respective icons – this masterpiece by Stella is a must read. Anyone within the field, set up a chair airshow style, sit a spell, and simply enjoy. You’re about to read a great story.