The PBY Catalina served two different and vital roles in the Pacific Theater. With their exceptional endurance, 12 hours in US service and pushed to 30 hours by the absolute mad lads in the Australia forces, and ability to land on anything calmer than a Beaufort Scale 4, the Cat or Dumbo served as a long-range scout and air-sea rescue plan.

Howard Miner, the author's father, flew in both missions in two tours in the South Pacific. Howard was also a talented journal-keeper and artist. Decades on, his children collected his papers, and Ron assembled these notes and sketches, along with interviews with surviving crew, into an account of time in the South Pacific. Some of the artwork is quite good, and this is a pleasant slice of life of young men at war in the exotic South Pacific, with friendly natives, food that varies between incredible and inedible depending on the vagaries of supply, and hijinks on base and R&R.

Combat is a definite secondary theme. Death in the air is sudden and mysterious, and the long-range PBYs don't get shot down so much as disappear, presumed lost. Bad weather and bad landings are more dangerous than the Japanese. As a rescue pilot, Lt. Miner could be justified in thinking that his war was morally pure. A handful of bombing runs, one a close support mission with napalm, are the exception to acting as an aerial savior.

I imagine this book is much better as a coffee table book. I read the kindle edition, with the art laid out on faux-stained pages. It works alright.