Bøker av Don Keith

"Bold, brash, and brimming with courage, Chuck Yeager burst onto the scene as a national hero in 1947, when he became the first to fly an airplane faster than the speed of sound. Yet even before his days as America's most famous test pilot, Yeager was a young fighter ace in the US Army Air Force, flying a P-51 Mustang over Nazi-occupied Europe. His exploits are the stuff of legend"--

The Warners are a typical family, with the usual rifts and arguments. Each year, they leave home on Christmas Day to spend the holiday week in a time-share condominium in Breckenridge, Colorado. The early-teenaged children, Tim and Julie, are opposed to the idea, preferring to stay home back in Boulder with Xmas gifts and friends, but their workaholic father insists that they spend the rare family time together. However, he is inevitably called back to his demanding business each year and is not even there for the Christmas holiday.Then, on one Christmas, Tim surprises his sister, taking her on an impromptu horseback ride to a mountaintop. There, he shows her an amazing and inspiring display of lights on a distant peak, a scene of mysterious origin that can only be viewed from that one spot and precisely at dusk on Christmas Day.The next year, their father is too busy to even make the trip to the Rocky Mountain condo for Christmas. Even so, the kids can't wait to take their mother on the yuletide horseback ride up the mountain so they can show her the beautiful light show. She, too, is inspired, and when they return home, she tries once more to convince her husband to put his priorities in the right place, to return to church and spend more time with the family. However, by the next holiday, their marriage is over and so are the rides to the mountain for the Warner family.Tim blames his mother for the breakup of the family and, when he eventually goes away to college, he ends all communication with her. Julie finally takes a Christmas journey of her own, a drive to the West Coast to convince her brother to renew the spirit they found together on that Colorado mountain peak with its mysterious light display.He does return home, and, at the same time, their father has his own epiphany. The next Christmas, the parents renew their vows, remarrying on the mountain just as the lights seem to be burning their brightest for the reunited family.But then a tragic turn brings the two siblings even closer, and a special Christmas gift makes certain their bond will never be dissolved, not by distance, hurt, or even death. A final view of the lights on the mountaintop confirms that the love of a family is the strongest tie of all. And a strange but wondrous twist shows Julie Warner the true meaning of those lights they saw on their rides to the Christmas mountain.This powerful story will resonate with today's busy families, too involved with their own distractions to experience the beauty of this special season, and offer special meaning to those who have lost someone and miss them most during the holidays. The lesson of those magical lights-that one must be in the right place and have an open heart to know the true meaning of Christmas-will touch readers everywhere. A Christmas Ride is a book about families sharing the miracle of the season and the wondrous display of lights on a snowy Colorado mountaintop is the perfect metaphor for this Christian holiday.

The heroic true story of Major Richard Bong, America’s greatest fighter pilot of the Pacific War and the nation’s top flying ace of World War IIArriving as a fresh US Army Air Forces pilot in New Guinea in late 1942, Richard Bong wasted no time taking on the Japanese, shooting down two planes in an early skirmish—an action that earned him a Silver Star. Over the next two years, Bong would amass the US armed forces’ most impressive record of aerial victories of the entire war, surpassing even the great Eddie Rickenbacker’s World War I tally and notching forty kills. In December 1944, he was personally awarded the Medal of Honor by General Douglas MacArthur. Now acclaimed author Don Keith recounts the remarkable saga of Bong’s war years as well as his tragic death while serving as a test pilot.

Burns, broken bones, shrapnel - nothing could stop Dixie Kiefer, the victim of ten wounds in two wars, a veteran of some of the U.S. Navy's most celebrated carriers and battles, and a naval aviation pioneer. This is his story.

Many biographies have been written about the larger-than-life college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant as well as an autobiography containing the coaches own memories. Other works have focused on an aspect of Bryant''s career, his coaching methods, or his philosophy. The Bear: The Legendary Life of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant stands alone among them all.Based on a screenplay by the late sportswriter and columnist Al Browning, it showcases many of the most memorable moments of Bryant''s life-many of them told by the coach himself-as stories filled with the immediacy and drama that go with a good story told well. The relationship Bryant and Browning shared went beyond that of coach and journalist. They were close friends, giving Browning a unique view of the man that few people had ever seen, especially in Bryant''s final years before his retirement and death a short while later.Some of the stories in this book have been heard before, but without the rich background and detail conveyed here. As such, the book validates many of them while clarifying others and occasionally correcting some inaccuracies."I just have a taken for finding the heart of a football team," Bryant once explained, and it was certainly true. It is equally true that All Browning found the heart of Bryant, and The Bear: The Legendary Life of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant has captured the essence of the man from Fordyce, Arkansas, for whom winning was no just the most important thing. It was the only thing.