Book Signing Event
By Kyle Kirby and Jeff WillhelmPhotos by Jeff Willhelm
Kenny Wayne Fields came to town on December 8th to do a book signing for The Rescue of Streetcar 304! If that wasn't enough, Joel Eaton (who flew in from Miami for the event) and Walt Moser came with him. For those of you who don't know, these three guys flew our A-7 when it was with VA-82 in 1968. See our A7 Connections page for the whole story.
A surprise visitor was David Seyse from Fleetwood, NC, who was a "grape", one of the aircraft fuelers in purple shirts aboard the USS America during the Vietnam war. In all probability he would have been one of the guys who fueled Streetcar 304 and our bird, 313, before they launched into combat. David was very enthusiastic and impressed with the museum, and he promised that he would be back. Walt brought some photos, one in particular of him prepping his bomb load on 313 prior to a mission.
Joel donated his flight jacket, helmet, bomb damage assessment photos, and VA-82 newsletters to our collection. Both men will be sending more items as they clean out their homes "at their wives request"!
Kenny was able to sign several books over the course of the day before and after our monthly meeting. We were glad to have three aviators with our airplane that served together nearly forty years ago here at the SAME time! This was a really historical event that any museum would be proud of. Kenny sent press releases to the local papers and also did a radio interview prior to the 8th so we had a great turnout! Imagine, three autographs from three aviators from the same squardon with OUR plane. I hope you were all able to get your autographed copy of the book! It is an awesome READ!
To learn more about the book, visit http://kennywaynefields.com/.
When asked about his book, Kenny said "My book is about heroes---those who rescued me from the jungle after trying to do so for 39 hours under withering enemy gunfire. My heroes are those men who know the danger of a particular lifesaving action...have time to sleep on their next course of action...and still do whatever is required to save a life even though they have fully realized ahead of time that they may die while trying."
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