American military aviation reached a low point after WWI, lagging behind European counterparts and battling for survival. To raise the public profile, commanders encouraged their pilots to enter air shows to vie for speed, endurance, and altitude records. U.S. Army airmen daringly accomplished the first flight three years before Lindbergh�s solo flight. Four Douglas World Cruisers, each carrying a pilot and a mechanic, took off from Seattle in April 1924, flying west to circle the globe; one additional plane was held in reserve. Four of the men and two of the planes completed the flight in September 1924 and, miraculously, all eight men survived, even though one plane had crashed in the Alaskan mountains and another had ditched in the Atlantic. Book captures the drama of the journey.