Never Call Me a Hero

<p><strong>Hailed as t</strong><strong>he single most effective pilot at Midway (<em>World War II</em> magazine) </strong><strong>Dusty Kleiss struck and sank three Japanese warships at the Battle of Midway including two aircraft carriers helping turn the tide of the Second World War. This is his extraordinary memoir. </strong><br/></p><p><strong>NATIONAL BESTSELLER - </strong><strong>AN INSTANT CLASSIC --</strong><strong><em>Dallas Morning News</em></strong></p><p>On the morning of June 4 1942 high above the tiny Pacific atoll of Midway Lt. (j.g.) Dusty Kleiss burst out of the clouds and piloted his SBD Dauntless into a near-vertical dive aimed at the heart of Japan's Imperial Navy which six months earlier had ruthlessly struck Pearl Harbor. The greatest naval battle in history raged around him its outcome hanging in the balance as the U.S. desperately searched for its first major victory of the Second World War. Then in a matter of seconds Dusty Kleiss's daring 20000-foot dive helped forever alter the war's trajectory. </p><p>Plummeting through the air at 240 knots amid blistering anti-aircraft fire the twenty-six-year-old pilot from USS <em>Enterprise</em>'s elite Scouting Squadron Six fixed on an invaluable target--the aircraft carrier <em>Kaga </em>one of Japan's most important capital ships. He released three bombs at the last possible instant then desperately pulled out of his gut-wrenching 9-g dive. As his plane leveled out just above the roiling Pacific Ocean Dusty's perfectly placed bombs struck the carrier's deck and <em>Kaga </em>erupted into an inferno from which it would never recover. </p><p>Arriving safely back at <em>Enterprise </em>Dusty was met with heartbreaking news: his best friend was missing and presumed dead along with two dozen of their fellow naval aviators. Unbowed Dusty returned to the air that same afternoon and remarkably would fatally strike another enemy carrier <em>Hiryu</em>. Two days later his deadeye aim contributed to the destruction of a third Japanese warship the cruiser <em>Mikuma </em>thereby making Dusty the only pilot from either side to land hits on three different ships all of which sank--losses that crippled the once-fearsome Japanese fleet. </p><p>By battle's end the humble young sailor from Kansas had earned his place in history--and yet he stayed silent for decades living quietly with his children and his wife Jean whom he married less than a month after Midway. Now his extraordinary and long-awaited memoir <em>Never Call Me a Hero </em>tells the Navy Cross recipient's full story for the first time offering an unprecedentedly intimate look at the the decisive contest for control of the Pacific in World War II (<em>New York Times</em>)--and one man's essential role in helping secure its outcome. </p><p>Dusty worked on this book for years with naval historians Timothy and Laura Orr aiming to publish <em>Never Call Me a Hero </em>for Midway's seventy-fifth anniversary in June 2017. Sadly as the book neared completion in 2016 Dusty Kleiss passed away at age 100 one of the last surviving dive-bomber pilots to have fought at Midway. And yet the publication of <em>Never Call Me a Hero </em>is a cause for celebration: these pages are Dusty's remarkable legacy providing a riveting eyewitness account of the Battle of Midway and an inspiring testimony to the brave men who fought died and shaped history during those four extraordinary days in June seventy-five years ago. </p>