Catapult

An avid aviation enthusiast almost from his first breath, Dr. Stearns has published articles in aviation periodicals. In 1942, he tried to join the Air Force while a premed student at Williams College in Massachusetts. Rejected because of astigmatism he went on to finish medical school at the University of California in San Francisco. There followed several years of internship in specialty training. Perhaps it was just as well the Air Force wouldn't have him. He recalls now that most of his friends lost during the savagery of the war were pilots. He moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1956 with his wife and three sons. He was certified by the American Board of Urology and accepted into the American College of Surgeons. Eventually he earned a pilot's license and ratings. He used aircraft in his practice and in the exploration of far away places with his family. As his practice grew, it was a boon that allowed him to make the most of his limited time. In recent years he applied himself to the craft of creative writing by taking a course at the University of Arizona. He has written and had published several short stories and historical vignettes. Now Dr. Stearns brings us a first novel, a reflection of his continuation infatuation with the world of writing and history. Elliot Edmund Stearns, a youngster in the pre-war years of 1938 and 1939, vividly recalls the angst of his elders in response to Adolf Hitler's growing militarism in Germany. Continuing political chaos in France, and England's inability to confront the thought of another European war seemed to promote endless crises. Family gatherings before the old console radio where shaking heads and rapt silences deeply imprinted into memories that remain fresh.