Bestselling Author: A Privilege to Tell Civil Air Patrol's World War II Story

In early 1942, with the smoke and flame and death of Pearl Harbor still fresh in the American mind and heart, Brig. Gen. John Curry and Gill Robb Wilson, along with a quickly cobbled together group of National Aeronautics Association staffers and volunteers, are busily processing applications from civilian pilots, chomping at the bit to join the newly created Civil Air Patrol.

With the stroke of a pen, New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, the director of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Office of Civilian Defense, had created the organization on Dec. 8, 1941. With America’s military depleted — the 17th largest military in the world, slightly smaller than Portugal at the time of the Japanese attack — civilians were needed to step into the breach to secure the nation until it could reach a war footing to match the Axis powers.

Applications flooded into the cramped Washington office from civilian pilots, driven by patriotism, author Sara Vladic writes.

“In a single month, more than half of America’s 91,000 civilian pilots, including three thousand women, join up along with droves of airplane owners eager to help. They arrive faster than their applications can be processed.”

In that first 30 days, the volunteer spirit of Civil Air Patrol is cast in iron, even as German submarines prowled the Atlantic Coast of North America, from the Canadian Maritimes to Miami.

That’s just one of the storylines from Vladic’s latest book, “The Dangerous Shore: How a Motley Crew of Scientists, Mobsters, Double Agents, Retirees, Volunteer Pilots (and a Boy Scout) Stopped the Invasion of America.”

For historian, author, and filmmaker Vladic, the road to “Dangerous Shore” began while working on her first book on USS Indianapolis, which made the New York Times’ bestseller list for six weeks in 2018.

An audio preview of Vladic’s book is available here.

Vladic crafted the story weaving in familiar names like the former Presbyterian pastor and aviation advocate Gill Robb Wilson, who founded CAP. There are also surprising players in the homefront effort, the gangsters Meyer Lansky, “Socks” Lanza, and Lucky Luciano, mobsters who kept American labor in and secure American ports as the economy transitioned to a war footing. A cardboard manufacturer, and Vernon Rudolph, who founded Krispy Kreme doughnuts, were all part of the wartime CAP.

But there are other important names in the homefront story, like teenage CAP flyer Alice “Red” Malone, CAP spotter Johnnie Pantanelli, and Willa Brown, the first African American woman in America to earn her pilot’s and mechanic’s licenses and the first African American female CAP officer.

While researching for the book, Vladic met with family members of the wartime CAP members who helped protect the American home front, despite being in their teens and twenties.

For example, “Red” Malone’s family members said the fiery redhead “bled red, white, and blue until the day she died.”

“You can’t make this stuff up,” Vladic said.

“For [current] CAP cadets, there’s a lot in the book to grab hold of,” Vladic said. “There is a lot that will resonate with them.”

The story, more than 600 pages long, is in the words of one reviewer, “a humdinger” that reads like something straight out of Hollywood.

Vladic believes there is a spark of the Divine that led her to the story, which takes readers into the air and under the sea, on spy missions, and into mob meetings. Much of the story is told in the present tense. For readers, it gives a “real-time” experience.

“I believe this story was placed before me for a reason,” she said. “I was given the privilege, and the responsibility, to tell it. In many ways, I feel God entrusted this story to me, and gave me the gift to share it.”

The present-tense approach is rare in history books. The book explains the roots of the war, from the rise of Hitler and Mussolini to the militarism of Germany and Japan, up to Pearl Harbor, in past tense. Like a black and white movie switching to color, the book switches to present tense after Pearl Harbor, giving it a sense of immediacy and suspense.

One fundamental truth emerged for Vladic about the characters in this book.

“That’s the thing I wanted to convey in all of these characters is that no one is 100 percent good. No one is 100 percent bad. That’s why they are relatable,” she said. “They’re kind of these outcast, misfit individuals who are very human and made very human choices in that moment. That was one of the reasons for the [present] tense choice because they made their decisions in that moment, without the benefit of the rearview mirror. I liked the idea of putting myself in those shoes.”

As flags were lowered at CAP’s Coastal Patrol bases for the last time at the end of August 1943, it was clear these “Sunday pilots” who flew unarmed on the hunt for Nazi warships that swarmed like sharks in the Atlantic, could rightly claim “mission accomplished.”

Vladic summed it up, writing:

“The CAP had done its part and more. More than 244,600 hours flown on 86,685 missions, rescuing survivors, and protecting convoys from the ever-present menace lurking beneath the water. Their work saved lives, it bought time. And it came at a cost. Twenty-six CAP members lost their lives in the line of duty and many more were injured; ninety planes were lost to the sea.”

Gen. Hap Arnold praised these farmers, teachers, mechanics, pastors, and patricians, civilian flyers who had never tasted combat.

“The Civil Air Patrol itself … grew out of the urgency of the situation [and was] set up and went into operation almost overnight. It patrolled our shores and performed its anti-submarine work in a time of almost desperate national crisis. If it had done nothing beyond this, the Civil Air Patrol would have earned an honorable place in the history of American air power.”

CAP was critical to national survival. Under Nazi naval rules of engagement, U-boat commanders were instructed to dive when an aircraft was spotted. Even unarmed, the CAP planes were a crucial weapon,” Vladic said.

She added, “They bought us the time that we needed,” she said. “They were the presence that we needed.”

The legacy of those early CAP flyers echoes to this day. Gill Robb Wilson, who grew up poor but always dreamed of the skies, wanted aviation open to all. His commitment was inspired by the death of his brother in World War I, a loss that altered the trajectory of his life.

“When he was first trying to establish CAP, he was talking to everyone — all the women who wanted to be pilots, to the kids, to blacks, to Hispanic, to Asians. He didn’t care. He just wanted them to have a chance to fly,” Vladic said.

Wilson weathered hardships like a modern-day Job from the Old Testament — poverty, cancer, the loss of his brother, mother, and sister.

These very human stories were tucked away in family attics, historical archives, and minds and hearts. Vladic brings them to life through exhaustive research, including previously classified FBI videos and transcripts, and interviews with eyewitnesses and family members, ranging from Gill Robb Wilson’s granddaughter Jill, who served as a Civil Air Patrol chaplain, to Lansky’s grandson, now a wedding officiant for mob-themed weddings at The Flamingo in Las Vegas.

She added, “The world can be spinning out of control, and they still chose to do the right thing. These people are perfect examples of it.”

Vladic hopes readers will find hope in her book.

Vladic’s passion for studying the war years was inspired in part by her late great uncle, a D-Day veteran she accompanied to Normandy before his death. What would he say about her new book?

“I believe that he would say that I captured the heart of the time,” she said. “I hope he’s up there smiling.”

Learn more about Vladic and order her book here.

The book, published by Harper Collins, is available on Amazon and at all major book sellers.