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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Sep 11, 2014 - 05:15pm PT
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Thanks, Reilly. Glad you're enjoying it.
I've got TONS more of those OG photos on my website. Probably best located through the tags to the various airplane types on the right sidebar of the site. Wish I could have seen it all in color (as the country song goes).
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Sep 11, 2014 - 06:02pm PT
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www.forbiddenislandalameda.com
Well I finally noticed Greg's recommendation of his secret hangout:
Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge
1304 Lincoln Ave
Alameda, CA
510-749-0332
This is clearly a must-visit. Off a few points from the original Trader Vic's that used to operate in west Berkeley on San Pablo Avenue long ago and soon many other locations (http://tradervics.com/the-history-of-trader-vics/); our Alameda venue still might get-et-done.
The China Clipper ($8)
“Celebrating the world’s first transpacific commercial flight from Alameda to the far East, Our china Clipper features a house-made five-spice syrup, gold rum and fresh lemon juice that will send you around the world in 80 seconds”
other House Specials drinks follow on this page.
But wait! There is a “Pools of Paradise” page with drinks offered for groups. Guido will hasten to secure some “Virgin Sacrifices” at $40 a drum. Mango, cinnamon and several rums, served table side flaming.
No real food but they have six fried appetizers. Looks like a lot of fun!
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pc
climber
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Sep 11, 2014 - 06:06pm PT
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Great news about the SFO museum Greg. Congrats!
I hope they stock your book in the SFO bookstores. Good marketing ;)
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Sep 11, 2014 - 09:58pm PT
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That's one hell of a good cocktail, Peter. It has my strongest endorsement.
Had a pretty wild Halloween in their one year... as Hugh Hefner. Didn't quite pull it off, but had fun trying. Made my best time with a woman dressed as a slice of bacon. Did manage to work my way through a good number of China Clippers.
By way of other meaningless trivia stored in my head, the first commercial transpacific flight departed Alameda on 11/22/1935, which happens to be our very own Steve Edwards' birthday. Who is now in a pretty big and pretty important fight. I'm not (overly) obsessed with Edwards. I just remember that because it's also my son's birthday.
But if you've ever taken a commercial flight across one of the world's great oceans, it traces its roots to that flight.
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couchmaster
climber
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Holy fu*k this is a GREAT book. I'd bought it and put it aside and recently picked it up. Wow, stunning! Greg, I put this on a par with the widely acclaimed Pulitzer winner that Barbra Tucuman wrote years back called "The Gun's of August". In fact, yours may get the nudge as the better of the 2. I'm slightly over half way into the thing and want to take the day off work to go finish reading it. Learning so much interesting things, and you've organized and presented it perfectly. (so far LOL)
DAMN FINE WORK SIR! DAMNED FINE. You've created a treasure that will outlive us all. Congrats, and a huge thank you. I need to look up the book that beat this one for the Pulitzer in Lit, cause it must be jaw dropping spectacular. Your Patagonia book will now be on my "must read" list as well.
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Gorgeous George
Trad climber
Los Angeles, California
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I judge a good book by how much I want to skip work to read it. Didn't get much done for a few days. Even my wife was calling me out for being "lazy."
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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OK, I promised a more in-depth review when I finished it. Being a pilot and
a history nut I feel fairly well qualified to pass judgment on this tome,
and I use the term kindly. As I said earlier it reads like a novel in that
Greg gets you into the heads of his subjects and the narrative flows like
the Yangtze, strong and powerfully. He doesn't get all geeky with the
aviation stuff but enough so that my ilk won't feel cheated. And some of
the flying 'scenes' are stern stuff! I also really liked his treatment of
the civil war which he managed to blend in with the story. This book is
going up on the shelf next to St Exupery and Ernest Gann.
And you can tell when I really liked a book by the number of stickies
blowing in the wind...
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Couchmaster, Gorgeous George, and Reilly,
So I check in on ST for the first time in weeks and get rewarded with this!
Blushing. Compared to Tuchman is very high praise indeed.
So happy to hear that you've all enjoyed China's Wings so much.
You'll appreciate this: Last week, I got an email from Ridge Hammell's wife!
(He's one of the two guys who made the 47-day crawl out of the mountains after surviving a crash.)
He was killed in another crash in May, 1945, and when I was writing the book I was having the hardest time even figuring out the correct spelling of his name. (It's spelled three different ways in company documents.) I scoured the country for traces of him. It took three years of attempts, but a friend of mine helping with oddball research finally found him in the records of Germantown, PA. (His flying mates had told me he was from Philly.) But nothing more. I couldn't find his family.
Anyway, he married a woman named Jean during his home leave in 1944 and returned to fly the Hump after.
So Jean is hanging out with her two daughters this Christmas (from her second marriage), telling stories about the guy she married during the war. One of the daughters decides to google his name, which takes them straight to my website, and from there, to China's Wings. Now they're knocked over with a feather. They all read it, and then email me. I asked for pictures, and got them.
Here's Ridge in India:
Here's one of their wedding photos:
Jean recently celebrated her 90th birthday in Denver, and sent me a photo of her surrounded by two dozen members of her immediate family, children and grandchildren. Looking at that photo, I was overwhelmed with the sense of what Ridge had lost out on since his fatal crash in 1945.
Here's where he ended up:
There have been several jaw-dropping things like that that have grown out of the book -- like getting a phone call from the daughter of Bernard Wong, who was killed in a CNAC plane wreck before Pearl Harbor. Her daughter had read the book and brought it to her attention with a, "Mom, isn't this my grandfather?" (Wong had been killed when she was only 45 DAYS old). She knew absolutely nothing about him. She called me, and I said that I didn't know much about him, but that I knew someone who knew him well and immediately put her in touch with Moon Chin, who was one of his best friends. She flew from Boston to SF the next weekend to meet Moon, and has attended the annual CNAC reunion these last two years.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Greg, I am unanimous in avering that Tuchman's narratives have never been accused of
"flowing like the Yangtze." ;-)
So where is that cemetery, Rangoon?
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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I think it's in Assam, India. Near the CNAC airbase at Dinjan.
I'm going to put out an "ask" on the CNAC network for a current photo.
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Moon Chin in the news!
102-years old and still going strong. The odds are against even Donini being able to climb a staircase at that age. ;-)
(Although the news spot is in Chinese, Moon is interviewed in English.)
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couchmaster
climber
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Mar 31, 2015 - 10:16am PT
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I'm glad I went fishing for this thread, it's gotten even better and I would have missed the updates. Greg's book keeps going strong until it ends. Wow, so good. If you find history of any interest, this is a book that should be on your "I need to read it before I die" list.
The other thread: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1388893&tn=0&mr=0
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 14, 2016 - 12:48pm PT
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^^^^ Maybe that's why they've been arrested lately?
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crankster
Trad climber
No. Tahoe
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Feb 14, 2016 - 03:46pm PT
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Just started it. Really liking it.
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Feb 14, 2016 - 04:37pm PT
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That's good to see, Crankster... and good to hear. As I've been saying for about two decades, God knows, I need readers. Hope you enjoy the rest of the flight.
I must admit, I am pretty stoked with all the attention CW has brought to Bond, Pete Goutiere, and Moon Chin. Those guys were/are badasses. And to CNAC in general.
Pete and Moon are still ticking along at 100+. Remarkable dudes.
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couchmaster
climber
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Feb 14, 2016 - 06:41pm PT
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Crankster said: "Just started it. Really liking it."
Great book, we finally we agree on something. :-)
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crankster
Trad climber
No. Tahoe
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Feb 14, 2016 - 07:35pm PT
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It's a start.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Feb 15, 2016 - 05:26am PT
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It's nice that an old warhorse like Hemmingway get's to bask in the glow of a young turk......right on Greg!
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Feb 15, 2016 - 08:00am PT
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Finally we agree on something. :-)
Hilarious. Peace of Westphalia incited by China's Wings?
Jim... if only.
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