If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Courtesies of the Heart

by Kenneth Breaux

262 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1543; ISBN 1-4120-1165-5; US$21.50, C$24.73, EUR17.66, £12.36

The author takes the reader on a compelling odyssey, beginning with a wartime mystery which endured for nearly sixty years. A compelling and often gripping story of loss and discovery.

About the Book

On 11 September 1944, US Army Air Corps Lt William Lewis departed for a combat mission over Germany. Sometime during that mission, he vanished and was presumed dead. His disappearance remained a mystery for 58 years. Courtesies of the Heart is the story of the mission and the long search for Lt Lewis. Complete with personal letters, official correspondence and bureaucratic tangles, this is an intensely personal account of the grief of a young widow and the mother of the fallen airman.

The modern search began in 2001, initiated by the daughter he saw only once before departing for combat. It reveals the details of an investigation that takes place in three countries, by different groups of people, all of which eventually lead to a successful recovery and the solution to the mystery that spanned six decades. It involves a confidential file recently discovered in the archives of a US military base in Germany, reports of the East German secret police, and the remarkable discovery of an old German man with a beautiful sense of honor. It details how the internet acted as a bridge and facilitator for the searchers as they attempted to piece the puzzle parts into a coherent whole. Finally, it is about the closure of a long-suffering daughter.

About the Author

Kenneth Breaux served as a Naval Officer during the Vietnam era, where he first became acquainted with the plight of MIA's and their families. He spent over twenty years on active and reserve service and retired from the Navy with the rank of Commander. He works in the consulting group of a major Information Technology company. He lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and two daughters. This is his first book.

Excerpts

Review

60-year saga retold
By MIKE NOBLES
11/5/2006

Lost WWII pilot finds his way home
'Courtesies of the Heart'
KENNETH BREAUX
(Trafford Publishing, $21.50)

The events depicted in "Courtesies of the Heart" by Kenneth Breaux are true, occurring over a 60-year period. They began on Sept. 11, 1944, in the sky over Germany and ended on Memorial Day, 2004, in Tulsa. It is an amazing, almost unbelievable, story of courage, despair, friendship and duty.

Lt. William M. "Bill" Lewis was a Tulsa native, born on Jan. 18, 1922. He graduated from Central High School and joined the Army in 1943. Soon after joining the service, he learned his wife was pregnant. He attended flight school and was assigned to the Eighth Air Force in England as a pilot. He briefly saw his daughter, Sharon, before reporting for duty in England. He flew his first combat mission on June 4, 1944, just two days prior to D-Day. He disappeared on Sept. 11, 1944, in a mission over Oberhof, Germany. This book is the story of Lewis' mission, disappearance and return to Tulsa after 60 years.

He was providing escort protection to the 100th Bomb Group, which was conducting a raid on German oil refineries when Lewis was reported missing, one of 57 U.S. planes reported lost on that day. His whereabouts were to remain a mystery for almost 60 years.

The military declared him dead in 1946 and closed the chapter on his life. His daughter Sharon, only 6 months old when he died, always wondered about her father but it was not until she saw the movie "Saving Private Ryan" in 2001 that she decided she had to learn his fate. She enlisted the assistance of a friend, Breaux, who was a computer consultant and Internet research buff.

Breaux's multi-year effort resulted in not only the location of Lewis' remains but his return to Tulsa for final burial and some closure for the family. The search uncovered a university worker in Prague who had not only done in-depth research on the Sept. 11 battle but had created a museum dedicated to its remembrance. Incredibly, he had found the Lewis crash site and knew what happened to his remains.

Even more unbelievable, a German naturalist/forester discovered the crash site within days of its occurrence and not only buried Lewis' remains but erected a cross to note the location. He tended the site for some 30 years as an act of respect and caring.

Combine these remarkable events with the discovery that American forces had located the crash site, then in East Germany, but had been unable to recover the remains and the ultimate involvement of an American recovery team's visit to the scene, and you have a true story that is stranger than fiction.

In addition to a spellbinding story of loss and recovery, there is a highly readable history of the air war over Germany from both the Allied and German perspectives.

But most of all, this is a story that proves humanity knows no borders and that one person can make a difference.

Mike Nobles is co-founder of A Gathering of Writers.