Among the many young Americans who found themselves fighting in the Pacific was 18-year old Samuel Hynes from Minnesota who became a Marine pilot and flew more than 100 missions. Hynes, later a Princeton professor, is a gifted writer and his memoir about the war (Flights of Passage: Reflections of a World War II Aviator, Naval Institute Press, 1988) alternately conveys nostalgia, sorrow, humor, and humility. While focused entirely on his own experiences, this story surely reflects what it was like for a generation of young men who, in his words, “Grew up on active duty.”
