The dangerous missions of a U.S. Navy bomber squadron in World War II From Iwo Jima to the South China Sea, the stories of men in a World War 2 US Navy bombing squadron -- their lives, their loves, and the memories that still echo down the decades. When we think about World War II bombers, we picture formations of scores of bombers, escorted and protected by fighters, flying into enemy territory and bombing the hell out of the enemy. In Europe, and usually in the Pacific as well, this was the standard approach, but some bomber squadrons flew a different kind of mission. This was the case for VPB-117 -- the Blue Raiders -- unique not only because its B-24 Liberators flew for the U.S. Navy, and not the Army, but also because most of the Raiders' missions entailed bombers venturing out over the Pacific, alone, to seek and destroy on long-range missions of a thousand miles out and a thousand back, often at altitudes close enough for sea spray to cloud their windows. This is their story. "Beautifully written and deeply researched. Ed Kittrell takes readers on a powerful journey through the Pacific air campaign to honor the sacrifice of those who flew and the families they left behind. This is an essential book for anyone interested in World War II." Wil S. Hylton, author of Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II " Solo Into The Rising Sun is far more than a clinical history of a navy bomber squadron. It is a deeply moving portrait of young men swept up into a global war that killed many of them and forever transformed the rest. And, equally affecting, it is the story of the next generation, of children born into a resounding silence that was the legacy of their parents' wartime experience. Kittrell's quest to break through that silence not only honors the legacy of his father and his crewmates but also greatly enriches the historical record." Stephen Harrigan, author of Big Wonderful Thing and The Gates of the Alamo "Many of the men who fought in the Pacific during World War II hardly spoke of it back home. So, a lifetime later, Ed Kittrell went looking for answers. The result is a great gift: true stories from a time and place that even now touches us in ways we never imagined." Linda Spalding, author of Who Named The Knife and The Purchase Ed Kittrell is a journalist who holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University and who worked as a newspaper reporter in Chicago. He has been an independent writer for more than thirty years. He is the author, with his sons, of Down Time: Great Writers on Diving. He lives in Glenview, Illinois.