Slated to be released Nov. 27, 2017, is “Hoosier Aviator Paul Baer: America’s First Combat Ace” by Tony Garel-Frantzen.
Baer was an American pilot of many firsts. Born into a modest midwestern family in the late 1800s, he grew up short and shy in Fort Wayne. Not short on ambition, he volunteered to join a new breed of combatant: The fighter pilot.
Dogfighting in the skies over France during World War I, Baer earned a reputation as the first-ever American to shoot down an enemy plane and the first to earn the title of “combat ace” for earning five victories, before being shot down himself.
Author Tony Garel-Frantzen celebrates the 100th anniversary of Baer’s aerial heroics with rarely seen images, a previously unpublished POW letter from Baer, and a look at Baer’s life of roaming.
Garel-Frantzen worked as a reporter and editorial cartoonist for five years before embarking on a career as a public relations consultant and corporate communications executive. His first book, “Slow Ball Cartoonist: The Extraordinary Life of Indiana Native and Pulitzer Prize Winner John T. McCutcheon of the Chicago Tribune,” was published by Purdue University Press in 2016.
A military aviation enthusiast, he soloed his first plane, a Piper Cub J-3, in 2003.
The 128-page paperback book is available now to pre-order for $21.99.