Before the Second World War, the idea of moving large groups of soldiers to an objective by air was so much science fiction. After the war, it was doctrine.

Getting there was a brutal learning curve, in particular the airborne phases of the invasion of Sicily and Normandy and the effort to supply the Chinese army by air over the Himalayas. But learn the Air Force did, and the result was the most air transportable armed force on the planet.

This book covers that transition, forged in battle, that made air mobility a core tenet of U.S. strategic doctrine.