The Bombardier

The Bombardier spans the years between World War II and the riotous events of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. In it, novelists John William Corrington explores the motivations behind today's political upheavals by telling the story of five young men, from very different backgrounds, who are trained as bombardiers during World War II. Assigned to the European theater, the bombardiers use their skills to destroy military targets, killing thousands-but it is the morally...
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The Bombardier spans the years between World War II and the riotous events of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. In it, novelists John William Corrington explores the motivations behind today's political upheavals by telling the story of five young men, from very different backgrounds, who are trained as bombardiers during World War II. Assigned to the European theater, the bombardiers use their skills to destroy military targets, killing thousands-but it is the morally questionable firestorm they helped create which destroyed Dresden and killed 235,000 civilians that most affects them after they return to America. "When they came home, the seeds of later violence, of Final Solutions to all problems, was sown within them." Two decades later the former bombardiers, now middle-aged men pursuing different careers, react in different, but characteristic, ways when they encounter the riots, demonstrations, and discontent of the anti-war protesters who assembled at the 1968 Democratic Convention.