Vanished Hero

The Life, War and Mysterious Disappearance of America’s WWII Strafing King

By: Jay A. Stout

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

A hell-bent-for-leather fighter pilot, Elwyn G. Righetti remains one of the most unknown, yet compelling, colorful, and controversial commanders of World War II.

Arriving late to the war, he led the England-based 55th Fighter Group against the Nazis during the closing months of the fight with a no-holds-barred aggressiveness that transformed the group from a middling organization of no reputation into a headline-grabbing team that had to make excuses to no one. Indeed, Righetti's boldness paid off as he quickly achieved ace status and additionally scored more strafing victories - 27 - than any other Eighth Air Force pilot.

However, success came at a high cost in men and machines. Some of Righetti's pilots resented him as a Johnny-come-lately intent on winning a sack of medals at their expense. But most lauded their spirited new commander and his sledgehammer audacity. Indeed, he made his men most famous for "loco busting", as they put more than 600 enemy locomotives out of commission - 170-in just two days!

Ultimately, Righetti's calculated recklessness ran full speed into the odds. His aircraft was hit while strafing an enemy airfield only four days before the 55th flew its last mission.

©2016 Jay Stout (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Vanished Hero is a welcome addition to military biography collections, and highly recommended for both public library collections and personal reading lists." ( Midwest Book Review)

We Need to Remember our Fallen

This is an account of a remarkable man who possessed a sense of duty that most cannot comprehend. Why did he make that final gun run when his plane was already badly damaged? What was his final fate? Read by the one-and-only, Joe Barrett, it is a real “page-Turner” that you will want to listen to hour after hour.

A Really Interesting Biography of a Vanished Pilot

I bought this book because it sounded interesting, and I'm glad I did. Elwyn Righetti is not one of the storied names of World War II pilots, even though he was well known at the time of the war. Righetti was lost at the end of the war, and this book is not only a biography, but a bit of a detective story about trying to find out what happened to him. Righetti seems to have simply disappeared in the sands of time.

One word of warning--Stout really meanders at the beginning of the book, telling, in a somewhat plodding manner, how he came to write it. Although this is mildly interesting, stick with it for the real story about Righetti.

After the introduction, the book moves well. The narration is OK.

Great Performance for a Great Story!

I had a difficult time adjusting my ear to the narrator's voice for about the first 30 seconds, and then it all seemed to come together. The voice quickly became perfect, and it struck me as being very authentic for the 1940s.

The book includes a lot of detail about Righetti's upbringing and his family which I wouldn't have thought was necessary for a story about a combat pilot, but it turned out to be good context, and made me care about him more. It made him seem more real.

There is a lot of background about the air war over Europe and certainly a great deal about Righetti's accomplishments. It seems odd that he's not better known. Except for being crazy-aggressive, he seemed to have been not only an accomplished pilot, but a very good leader.

As to his ultimate fate, the book takes the reader through a very comprehensive investigation that raises issues and ideas that most folks never would have considered. And it all comes together in a super-slick package. This is a very well-written book that is also very well narrated and acted.

Highly recommended.

Fortitude

So many stories during this war To be a full Colonel at 30 is remarkable. As he was. The ending surprised me. Great Warrior.

Unremarkable book

A very unremarkable book, a mixture of lots of other pilot's experiences and boring prehistory to try and fill out a story that could be covered in a few chapters. Though I salute this pilots service to our country, I lost any and all admiration for him when he told of strafing horses at a riding academy. Animals don't choose to go to war, stupid humans choose to go to war! The author does his best to downplay this act of cruelty by referencing him as rancher, which I personally think is an insult to real ranchers. These people weren't ranchers, they were dairy and pig farmers that had a couple of horses to which I presume were for no particular purpose other than for the kids to gee-haw around. No self-respecting rancher would be strafing horses for no other reason than to pad a strafing record.