Jim Brooks was a young, soft-spoken farm boy from Virginia when America entered World War II. Like so many other Americans, Jim enlisted in the Army Air Corps and eventually became a Mustang pilot and ace in the European Theater of Operations.

  While Jim Brooks' fellow aviator Chuck Yeager's story became the stuff of legend, Brooks' story never made the history books and sadly, as in ever-increasing number of World War II-era pilots pass, his story is fading from our history as well.

  Following the War, Brooks moved to Los Angeles and became a test pilot for North American Aviation. He met, then married Martha Tilton, a popular Big Band singer of that era. Together they raised a family, worked hard, and like so many thousands of other veterans, established what would become the model for the generation of Americans that followed.