Col. Chuck Maultsby was born in Greenville, North Carolina on June 7th, 1926. After his mother's death (when he was eight years old), and subsequent rejection by a callous father, he went to live with an aunt and uncle in Norfolk, Virginia. Chuck Maultsby was born to fly and was fixated on aircraft from the time he could walk. He spent much of his youth hanging around the small municipal airport near his Norfolk home doing anything he had to do to be near airplanes and their pilots, while hoping someone would offer him a ride. He worked multiple jobs after school to raise the money necessary to take flying lessons and soloed on his sixteenth birthday. He applied for the Army Air Corps cadet program on his eighteenth birthday; only to suffer the disappointment of seeing the program's suspension at the end of World War II. The Korean War provided the next oportunity to become a jet pilot, and Chuck Maultsby grabbed it, only to be shot out of the sky during his 17th combat mission; and then he endured 22 months as a Chinese prisoner of war all the while suffering "unpleasant" treatment. After the Korean War, he became a pilot-instructor at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada and won a spot on the Nellis Fighter Weapons Team of 1957; the team that swept every event at the "William Tell" competition, beating every other military fighter-pilot team in the U.S. and rest of the free world. From there the Colonel became a member of the USAF Arial Demonstration Team, The THUNDERBIRDS (1958-1960). As a U-2 spyplane pilot, the Colonel found himself in the very dicey predicament of being detected by the Russians over their airspace at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. It's true to say that he very nearly was the cause of World War III. The next major phase of the Colonel's life was spent in Vietnam in 1967 where he flew 216 combat missions (a full third of those missions were flown in North Vietnam). He was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action for his mission in close support of American ground troops in dire straights. After the Vietnam experience, Col. Maultsby continued as a pilot-instructor and squadron commander at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona, a staff officer at Tactical Air Command Headquarters at Langley AFB, Virginia, and finally, as the standards and evaluation officer for NATO Forces South in Naples, Italy. Col. Maultsby was married to his wife, Jeanne, from 1949 until his death in 1998. They had three sons. P.S. The Colonel even retells the story of his involvement in one of the most shocking scandals in military history involving the Chief of Staff of the Royal Australian Air Force.

FROM THE EUROPEAN THEATER TO PEARL HARBOR THE FULL STORY OF THE BEST AMERICAN FIGHTER PLANE OF WORLD WAR II, AND THE MEN WHO FLEW IT

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is known today as a fighter airplane, but in fact it was never intended to combat other fighters, nor was it created as a fighter. It was designed to intercept and destroy enemy bombers. Simply put, it was a flying anti-aircraft weapon-not a combat plane. But, from the first test flights at Lockheed in 1937, the plane that was to become the P-38 made it clear that it truly was a new generation of fighter. And it demanded a new kind of pilot-one who could handle the kind of firepower and speed that foreshadowed the modern jet fighter. Here is the story of pilot and plane in development and in combat, as they swept the skies of Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific. A magnificent story of one of the finest weapons to be applied in World War II, told by Martin Caiden and the men who flew the "Fork-Tailed Devils.