SPIN IN, DUMBWHACKS

This parallels, to some extent, for aviation training in the Army what Love At First Flight by Spaulding and Carney (Houghton, Mifflin) did for the Navy. Ryan and his chum, Sod, brush rejection aside and manage to get in; they report at Thunderbird Field, Phoenix. They despair over preliminary conditioning, over the boners they pull; Ryan makes his instructors grow old before their time, and Sod stays in his own brand of hot water. Eventually, they solo, and go on up the ladder but it takes Pearl Harbor to sober them. Bakersfield -- Stockton and graduation, supply further background. Pleasant reading, light amusing, basically serious.