"Many memoirs have been written by veterans of the European and Pacific theaters of action, but this book, by former poet laureate Daniel Hoffman, is among the first by a noncombatant, describing unusual experiences in military and civilian life on the home front.".

"A chance summer job while in college led, after a few weeks, to Hoffman's writing instruction manuals for the P-47C and B-17F. Called up in the Enlisted Reserve, he was sent to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. At twenty, he was given more responsibility than he has ever held since: directing the AAF Technical Data Digest, an abstracts journal that covered every phase of aeronautical research and development relevant to the Army Air Force.

It was sent to air bases around the world, military contractors, and all Allied air attaches. This is a hitherto untold report of how the AAF retrieved and distributed essential technical data before the invention of computerized information processing." "Challenging as this assignment was, Hoffman, knowing that his friends and classmates were facing death overseas, was beset by survivor's guilt, in the end accepting that he could but do what his assignment required him."--BOOK JACKET.