The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II

I literally couldn't put this book down until I finished it! ...It's that good. Not only does it chronicle the events of Jerry Yellin's remarkable journey but Don Brown provides the reader with a fabulous synopsis of the events leading up to and through the War in Japan. It includes many eye-opening unsanitized truths about the brutality of war and in many cases the teenagers that fought in it. Winston Churchill said it best, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." ...So get comfortable, fasten your seat belt and hold on!

A tragic story. However, I don't think this pilot was the last combat death in WWII. I didn't bother to look up the date the USS INDIANAPOLIS was sunk by a Japanese submarine, but it was after the announced surrender. In any case, not to quibble, the loss of any life after the cessation of hostilities is tragic.

It presents the Iwo campaign from the Air Force point of view. We have had numerous books and movies from the Marines' point of view. This is a different aspect of that bloody battle. I had occasion to serve with Marines who had participated in various campaigns in WWII and in Korea. A big regret in my life is that I didn't encourage them to talk about their experiences on the occasions when it was obvious that they wanted to talk about them.

Mr. Brown,
As a native of Hillside, New Jersey and a former fighter pilot myself, I was enthralled by Jerry Yellin's story and not knowing he was a neighbor back in the 30's and 40's.. Is there an e-mail for Jerry so I can thank him for his service and swap stories about our old home town?
Thomas Dwyer
Grand Prairie, Texas

Interesting read but I didn't like the style much. I did like the 'on the sight' so to speak accounts of what things felt like, the state of mind and what goes through the pilots heads during all of this. THese young men were there when needed and didn't question their orders they just did their jobs. A brave person this Last Fighter Pilot who lost many of his friends and felt it strongly.

Bought for my Uncle who was on Iwo Jima (youngest Marine there I have been told) and is one of a handful of survivors after hearing interview with author on Coast to Coast AM radio show. Story is more than riveting. Can't speak to the book because I did not read it myself but if half as good as the interview it will be an amazing glimpse of a special event in US military history.

The last fighter pilot relates one man’s role in the last days of WW2. He was a p-51 pilot & did his flying from Iwa Jima. This account tells many incidents during the course of his service. 16 of his friends died, and how each met his fate are related. I learned a lot about those final days. How he became the last fighter pilot makes this overly interesting.

This book draws the reader into a war that many know very little about. No movie can reveal the full story of the air war over Japan like this book does. It is a story that everyone should read to reinforce the sacrifices that Americans have made to assure the freedoms we enjoy. This is why we honor our national anthem and our flag.

I think my expectations were too high for a book whose title tells us that it is about the last days of the air war over Japan. When these fighter pilots took off the war was on....when they landed it was over. So the pilot about whom it was written probably went on a mission that did absolutely
nothing to end the war. I did not find the book that entertaining.

Outstanding tribute to the Pacific bomber groups and fighter squadrons of WWII.

'The Last Fighter Pilot' (Jerry Yellin) recently was a guest speaker at the USAF Academy. Quite the role model for our cadets. Jerry's story of countless missions flying into and out of Iwo Jima is priceless. Many of his fellow pilots are teenagers who don't even know how to drive a car... yet given the circumstances of the day, are flying the most sophisticated fighter in the world, (P-51 Mustang). This age of innocence will have its own reckoning, as many will never see home again.

Jerry's war journal focuses in on the spring and summer of 1945. The place, as mentioned earlier, is Iwo Jima. On a daily basis P-51 aerial attacks are launched from that 8 mile volcanic rock. Jerry lives through a major banzai attack and fly's numerous escort missions to mainland Japan for the lumbering B-29 bomber. Also daily attacks on Chichi Jima are chronicled.

Quite the inspirational read. From one retired airman to another, I salute Jerry and all of his comrades. Thank you for your service Captain Yellin. You’ve given a righteous voice to your P-51s rippling contrails.

One of the most poorly written, cliche filled, and poorly edited books I have ever read. It is a real disservice to the subject. Notwithstanding the subjects service to the country, this book in any literary sense rivals some of the worst self-published books in print.

Wow. a 2 and a 3 star? I thought this book was magnificent. Very good author. Very informative. Well explained and organized. I learned lots of new things about the air war in the Pacific during WWII. Heartily recommend this one. Hard to put down, and for me, w my schedule, can be hard to do. Brown did a fantastic job melding the individual life/career of Jerry Yellin w the final months of the US island hopping campaign towards the Japanese home islands. I will recommend this to former history teacher colleagues. It is that good! Well done.

I love Don Brown's books and have read many. Before I knew about them, I would wince when the subject of WW2 came up: I found it to be dull beyond belief as I am a classical literature nut and rarely venture into other literary genres. This is an informative and inspiring book. It's a bit of a culture shock to read about men barely out of their teens who would travel down the road of 'purpose' to serve their country in the way these men did. In the WW2 scenario, there are unfathomable challenges that these men in combat face, including the prospect of being cannibalized by the Japanese. I highly recommend this book as a Christmas gift to anyone who has high school or college aged children. The best way to restore our nation to greatness is to provide a well needed frame of reference to our youth what real life challenges and personal sacrifice look like. Get the book!

Don Brown’s The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II is a must-read for history buffs and anyone who can’t resist a great story that just happens to be true.

While truth, according to master Mark Twain who coincidently is one Brown’s favorite authors and an individual who’s had a strong influence on Brown’s writing, is stranger than fiction, in the case of The Last Fighter Pilot, reality (as spun by Brown) is stronger than fiction.

In his previous eleven published works of fiction (along with nonfiction, Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team,) Author Don Brown has proven himself to be a magical storyteller. But Last Fighter Pilot isn’t fiction and yet the last fighter pilot himself, Jerry Yellin’s story and the immediate manner in which it is told by Brown is nothing less than mesmerizing. Stronger than fiction and not to be missed.

At times, poignant with the loss of Yellin’s friends and fellow fighters, and Yellin’s struggles as a young underdog searching for his place in the world, not to mention the ravages of war, there is always hope.

This message of hope drives the story—is the story—just as hope and possibility fuel and bless our lives.

Merging Jerry’s amazing tale and our young men’s brave fight in the Pacific, an arena of WWII that is underserved, literally aching to be told, with Author Brown’s bomb-bursting, fire’s blazing and even at times, hold-onto-your-seat-we-are-in-for-a-scary-ride style, the result is a pure winner.

Fun for the whole family.

Curl up with a hot chocolate in front of the kitchen stove on a winter night satisfying.

I have admit that before reading Last Fighter Pilot, I didn’t know much about the war in the Pacific, but I know now, and I enjoyed the ride. This book is also a fabulous educational tool. Brown takes the reader by the hand, and with confidence and skill, our stomach’s jump, our heart’s sing, and we know everything will be alright. Plus we learned something. 'Ain’t life grand.'

So settle in the jump seat next to Yellin. No, Brown puts the reader in the jump seat. The reader sees this world through the last fighter pilot’s eyes--a panorama not to be missed.

A once in a lifetime experience. Read The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II today. And buy copies for all of your friends. They will love you for it.

I think that some of the critiques of this book have significantly missed its point. In the introduction, the authors specify that it is Capt Yellen paying homage to those that were lost during his time at Iwo Jima. It's not going to be a P-51 technical manual, a biography covering the rest of his life beyond those points, or a detailed account of the overall Pacific campaign. There were a few errors in the historical research, but they were insubstantial to the overall quality of the narrative. The most glaring that comes to mind is the assessment of General Le May's performance during the Berlin Airlift.

I think that this book is an excellent first hand tactical level account of what Capt Yellen endured during the war. It goes through the mindset of the pilots as they face the potential of being shot down, captured, and tortured. Along with the imminent danger of enemy attack, the book goes into the loss of Airmen outside of combat, including storms, mechanical failures, and training accidents. It serves as an accessible and personal account of the sacrifices made by Airmen that is a vital part of the United States Air Force's heritage. In the end, it sets out to accomplish the creative team's stated mission: to tell the story of a small group of Airmen in a particularly dangerous time and place with particular attention paid to honoring the sacrifices and the lost potential of those who never made it back.

Jerry Yellin is a hero. The facts surrounding his involvement in WWII are interesting and belong in this book. But the author, Don Brown, completely failed to convey to us who Jerry Yellin as a person is, and what he's been up to for the last 72 years. What did the war do to Jerry? How did it effect his world view and his relationships? What were his struggles? etc. etc.

A completely missed opportunity to give us the lessons of war and life while Jerry Yellin, the Last Fighter Pilot, is still alive to tell it.

I commend the author for telling a compassionate story of Capt. Yellin and his squadron mates as they fought the final months of the Pacific air war against a desperate and ruthless enemy. The sacrifices of these brave airmen, some of whom paid the ultimate price, are described in detail and the reader can truly feel the emotions that they experienced. Sadly, the historical narrative falls flat because of careless inaccuracies that could have been easily corrected with better research and more diligent editing. Many reviewers have already commented on specifics, but I found the most glaring (and rueful) error to be a reference to the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber as the "Flying Dutchman." There's no excuse for errors of this kind. The writing is awkward and repetitive at times and takes away from what could be a very good tale of courage and sacrifice. If you have a passing interest in World War II aviation and the experiences of someone who lived it, then I recommend you give the book a try, but if you're looking for an in-depth, accurate history of the war on Japan flown by Iwo Jima's P-51 Mustangs, you may be disappointed. Thank you, Capt. Yellin, for your service to our country and for telling your story, but you deserved better.

capt jerry yelling is a topnotch fighter pilot from world war 2 and flew was one of the last missions flying out of iwo jima flying countless straffing and bombing missions over japan this book is so well wrttion that I felt like I was in cockpit .also recamended never call me a hero by kleiss

I enjoyed Don Brown's sweeping review of wartime Pacific theater history, but agree with other reviewers that it did little to say who and what Jerry Yellin was all about. However, the biggest flaw for me was that clearly neither the author nor the editors are aviation people or pilots. The text is riddled with aeronautical errors (the first sentence of the Forward says "P51-D" when it should be "P-51D"; throttles are pushed "up" or forward for more power, not pushed down; the P-51 has a stick, not a yoke; "loop" has a specific aeronautical meaning; the Japanese Zero is designated A6M, not an "AM-6"; the P-51 does not typically cruise at 360 mph; a return from Tokyo back to Iwo Jima (750 nm) requires more than 90 gallons of fuel; a faster airplane does not necessarily mean it is more prone to a a flat spin; "12 o'clock high" means directly in front of you, above the horizon; airplane engines don't "lock up...into hyper-drive"). There are other errors as well (Mount Suribachi is not granite; it is volcanic; I doubt pilots enjoyed "hot tubs" on Iwo Jima after missions; escort P-51's are all on the ground are waiting for B-29's to appear overhead before rising to escort the bombers, but when the B-29's the author states the ground-bound P-51 pilots stare up at "...100 single-engine airplanes painted in their aviation battle gray"; first hand knowledge of horrible deaths ".. didn't make him afraid to live"? When engaging the enemy, Yellin "..opened fire on the enemy aircraft, then Danny." Yellin shot at his wingman Danny? I did not count how may times the author described Yellin's final wingman as the "the highest tested IQ in the Army" or that the wingman's great nieces became modern Hollywood actresses, but once for the former and none on the latter would have sufficed. I commend the departed Jerry Yellin for his service, but unfortunately the author and editors fumbled the story.

Interesting, but not particularly well written and rife with errors. Much of it reads as supposition. The author records the thoughts of pilots who were killed in action seventy plus years ago--so he can't know what they were thinking. I get that he’s trying to make the events immediate, but I think he takes quite a few liberties. Someone had to fly the last mission. But nothing about this account marks this last mission as special apart from the fact that it was the last.

This is a gripping tale of one of the great men of World War II. Jerry's story is one of learning and changing. A morality tale we could all take to heart in our own lives. I have to say I may be biased when it comes to Jerry Yellin. He appears in small part in my own book 'The Last Veterans of WWII. He's a man of straight forward integrity.
Don Brown's narrative kept me riveted even though I already knew the story. A must read from beginning to end!

I love war books. I read a lot of them, and I find the pacific war and the Japanese and their war history fascinating. This is one that I just stopped reading about 7/10 of the way through. I could not take it any more. I think the writer forgot why he even wrote the book half way through. You can pick any one person of the greatest generation and write a story of their experience, so when I want to read about the 'Last fighter pilot' I want to read about him. What I got was a meandering vacuous travelog of everything but. I waded through most of the book waiting for it get going, it just never happened.

I couldn't put this book down. Don Brown writes in such a way that I felt like I was in the midst of each scene. Fighter pilot Jerry Yellin is a true American hero. He and the pilots he fought with in the Pacific Ocean off of Iwo Jima are truly part of the greatest American generation.

This is an amazing story of the final chapter of WWII and the many men who gave the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our country's precious freedom. Thank you, Don Brown, for preserving this part of history in an incredible book.

This story needed to be told. Don Brown does an exceptional job of taking readers back in time to recount the story of Captain Jerry Yellen, who flew the last bombing mission of World War II. I have a new respect for Captain Yellen, who lost dear friends throughout the war, but remained focused on freedom. This story should be required reading in our schools. Thanks for your service, Captain. Thank you, Don, for your service to our nation, and for shining a light on these brave men. Well done.

Only Don Brown could have written such a riveting re-telling of Captain Jerry Yellin's story in The Last Fighter Pilot.
Don Brown, known for his meticulous attention to detail and extensive researching acumen, has crafted this true account of America's last fighter pilot of WWII.

Renee McCullah- Author
UNSEALED-Memoirs of a Navy SEAL's WIfe

An incredible, inspiring account of events leading up to the end of the war in the Pacific. A special thanks to Don Brown and Captain Jerry Yellin for bringing the story to print. We are quickly running out of opportunities to capture these priceless first-person narratives of the war, and this one is presented brilliantly.

A fast read, but potential readers who think it might focus on the last combat flights over Japan will be disappointed. The lead up to combat flying is half the book and the last half is interesting but the actual last flight and combat loss is just a few pages.

I was disappointed. The author has little or no backround in WW2 aircraft. The text is full of errors, referring to SBDs as A-24s and the A6M Zero as the AM-6. He tells of a P-61 intercept in which the pilot fires his .50 cal. gun. He claims that 7th AF aces were among the top scoring aces in the AAF. He claims the cruising speed of the P-51 was 350 mph and that the Spitfire was designed to escort bombers. I could go on.