"Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II -- and they were legion -- Jimmy
Stewart was unique. At the height of his fame in 1940 after starring in Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington and earning an Academy Award for The Philadelphia Story, Stewart saw war on the
horizon and enlisted. By the time Pearl Harbor woke so many others to the reality of the war,
Stewart was already serving as a private on guard duty at the Army Air Corp's Moffet Field, south of
San Francisco.
Author Starr Smith chronicles for the first time Stewart's long journey to becoming a bomber pilot in
combat, including:
- Stewart's battles with the Air Corps high command
- His assignment to a Liberator squadron in England with the famed Mighty Eighth Air Force
- His twenty combat missions -- including one to Berlin -- in command of his own squadron in the 445th Bomb Group
- Later, Stewart's promotion to group operations officer for the 453rd Bomb Group"
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