Horses and Helicopters A Son’s Tribute to his Father and Their Shared Military Service

Jim Downey, who served three tours in Vietnam with the US Air Force, compares his travels with those of his father before and during World War II in this inspiring memoir that celebrates family, valor, and military life. His quest started after he received a questionnaire form an Air Force Fighter Squadron, which led him to his father’s stack of military orders, other papers, and pictures. Major James A. Downey Jr. had never disclosed the details about his service during World War II, and the research turned into an eye-opening experience for his son. Major Downey was in the Philippines and China in the 1930s, areas that his son would get to know well decades later on his trips to Vietnam. The elder Downey also spent time in Germany and was one of the few sent back to the Philippines for the planed X-Day invasion of Japan. Join a son as he walks in the footsteps of his father, sometimes figuratively and sometimes literally—discovering insights about himself and his family in Horses and Helicopters.