Some stories are just too good to be true, but they are.  Some figures are too wild, too undisciplined, too out of the mold to achieve greatly, but they do.  Such is the story of Pappy Gunn, World War II pilot, a knight of the air who fought his own war against the Japanese and his superiors and the family he flew to reunite.

Pappy was a retired Navy pilot running the small Philippine Airlines when the Japanese attacked across the Pacific.  Joining the Army Air Force, he made the decision to fly out one more set of officers thinking, erroneously, that he would be able to return to Manilla to bring his family to safety.

“Indestructible” is really two stories in one.  One is the gruesome story of Polly Gunn and her and Pappy’s two sons and two daughters’ survival in a civilian prison camp in the Philippines.  The other is Pappy’s desperate struggle to free them. Flying throughout the Southwest Pacific from Australia, across New Guinea, to other islands and, eventually, returning to the Philippines, Pappy strained every fiber in his body to advance the front toward Manila.  He obtained parts and supplies, sometimes by armed robbery.  He modified B-25s by adding machine guns that made them much more effective attack machines.  His alterations were accepted by the brass and changed the nature and course of the war in the Pacific.

It is a cliché to say that a history reads like a novel, but this one really does.  Often that just means that the prose is so captivating that you cannot turn it down but must see what comes next.  “Indestructible” takes writing to the next level.  Not only did I want to know what happened next, but the action was so beyond expectations that I had to keep reminding myself that this really happened.

I do not want to reveal too many details in order to maintain the suspense for you.  Author John R. Bruning has crafted an entrancing tale that entertains as it educates.  This belongs in the library of every War History Network student of the Pacific Theatre of World War II as well as any fan of an exciting read.