A very nicely done biography of a "PBY Catalina" pilot in the Pacific in WW2 was assembled from his letters, logbooks, drawings, and photos. The Cat was obsolete when the war started but was still in service at the end. Doing reconnaissance, delivering freight, or rescuing downed pilots and crew, it was slow, sturdy, and very reliable. A pilot's son found his dad's papers and other memorabilia. He fleshed it out nicely with interviews, recorded memories, and some quite good museum-level research to produce this very memorable and readable memoir about his dad and the Cat. ( )

With his SKETCHES OF A BLACK CAT: STORY OF A NIGHT FLYING WWII PILOT AND ARTIST, Ron Miner has done his daddy proud. Working with a treasure trove of letters, stories, drawings, newspaper clippings and other papers his father, Howard Miner, left behind, Ron blended these artifacts with careful research and personal interviews with other Black Cat alumni, to craft a beautifully rendered first-person "memoir" of a PBY 'Catalina' pilot's service in the Pacific theater of the Second World War.

Howard Miner came from a sheltered, conservative background, an Indianapolis boy who never even owned a bicycle, and attended small conservative Wabash College. He describes his initial flight training at Glenview's Naval Air Base in "the dead of winter on the edge of Lake Michigan" as a "combination of terror and incredible excitement." As part of his ground school training, he learned Morse code, which he found "kind of appealing." (I had to smile at this, because twenty years later I trained as a Morse code intercept operator with the U.S. Army.) After months of training in Illinois, Texas and California, Howard was fully certified to pilot those 'flying boats,' the PBY Catalinas. Given duty station choices of Alaska (the Aleutian Islands) or the Pacific, he chose the latter, figuring it would be much warmer there. (Again, I could relate, having been part of a group of ten Morse ops who underwent special training before assignments to either Shemya [in the Aleutians] or Sinop [in northern Turkey]. Fortunately, I got Sinop.)

And, as another very relevant aside, because Howard Miner was an artist (and a very talented one), his story immediately reminded me of another WWII memoir which was set in the Aleutians, penned by another artist and amateur naturalist, Charles Bradley, whose beautifully illustrated ALEUTIAN ECHOES, is a particular, if obscure, favorite of mine.

Howard Miner did two tours of duty in the Pacific Theater. The Catalinas of his unit were painted a flat black to make them less visible for their night flights, hence the "Black Cat" nickname, and the painted logo he designed. He flew from New Guinea to the Philippines and many of the island chains in between, including the famous names of Tarawa, Guadalcanal, Corregidor, and more. There were, of course intervals of quiet and boredom, interspersed with periods of extreme danger and high excitement. I found the search and rescue missions for downed pilots and crews of his second tour the most interesting. And there are some stunningly beautiful descriptions of the island terrain and scenery here too, for example, flying over Panay island of the Philippines -

"... the scenery seemed particularly stunning in the dwindling light, the leafy deep ridges of the mountains with rivers forming intricate networks and patterns as they emptied into the viridescent shallows of the small bays. A rich wide rainbow showed itself, gracing us with a complete circle instead of the familiar arch that is usually interrupted by land or clouds."

Howard's younger brother, Mac, was an Army medic on Leyte, and they managed to hook up briefly and Mac regaled Howard with a very graphic account of routine life on a troop ship which he'd endured getting to the Philippines.

There is much here too about first experiences - drinking, women and the various stupid stuff that young men do the first time they find themselves far from home and parental supervision, because this is also a coming-of-age story. But mostly it is about the war itself, rich in stories and anecdotes, and I could say more, but I will instead recommend a couple other such books I enjoyed just as much. The first is Samuel Hynes' beautifully written account of his time as a very young Marine Corps pilot in the Pacific, FLIGHTS OF PASSAGE, a classic of war memoirs. And there is also E.B. Sledge's WITH THE OLD BREED, about his Marine Corps tours on Okinawa and Peleliu (an island Howard Minor also knew).

True to its title, SKETCHES OF A BLACK CAT is enhanced throughout with Howard's drawings, paintings, letters and photos. This is a fine book, eminently readable and written with love. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and will recommend it very highly. Bravo, Ron Miner. Your father would be so pleased and proud. Bravo!

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA ( )

I am a firm believer that we should never forget the history that our ancestors lived through, although I did admit to Ron Miner that every time my Grandad mentioned the war I appeared to develop selective deafness. How I wish I had listened to him now, but when you are younger history is boring and it is through reading books such as this that we realise what danger these young men and women put themselves in to secure our freedom. A freedom we often take for granted.

I am not terribly familiar with the war in the Pacific which is mainly where Sketches of a Black Cat is based, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Howie learning to fly and some of the scrapes he got himself into and out of. There are photographs included at the end of each chapter to bring the story to life, along with some amazing sketches by the incredibly talented Howard Miner. I felt completely honoured and humbled to read excerpts from his letters to his parents, and chuckled at the code they developed to get through the censors.

Sketches of a Black Cat is going to appeal to anyone with a love of history, especially World War II, as it gives us Brits a completely different perspective on this devastating war. I even learnt something new about the Normandy landings when around 1000 personnel were killed during Operation Tiger, a D-Day practice, at Slapton Sands in Devon. Ron Miner has ensured that these brave men and women are remembered by mentioning them in his book and I am ashamed that I had not heard of this before.

A refreshing and personal account of the war in the Pacific, Ron Miner has very kindly given us a glimpse into the life of a World War II pilot. The sketches are outstanding and remind us that the war wasn't all about the fighting as Howie spent some time on remote Pacific islands. Not just from the photos but from the writing itself, it was clear that these young men fought, lived and died together. The war was devastating for some families whose loved-one never returned home but for others who survived, life long friendships were forged.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. ( )

Great Stories, Interesting Art, and More Would Have Been Even Better

Ever wonder who paints those pictures on the front of aircraft? In the book, Sketches of a Black Cat, you’ll meet one such pilot and artist in the memoir written by his son. Howard (Howie) Miner was a WWII Navy Seaplane pilot and although he probably never painted his plane (they were black for night operations), he was also an artist. He sketched many other works for his buddies and himself, from pictures of family to scenes from his area of operations – the South Pacific.

The book moves quickly, covering training and two tours of duty in less than 250 pages including numerous photographs. Through the first tour, the pace is perhaps a little too fast, but then the story slows a bit and the reader gets a closer glimpse at Howard Miner’s life and his art. Although he flew several types of missions – humanitarian, bombing, and others – the search and rescue of downed pilots dominated the book. Many of these operations were accomplished at great peril and involving incredible skill. Landing in heavy seas “…tested the mettle of the metal” and holes from missing rivets and bullets were plugged with golf tees and pencils. Not every rescue was a success, of course, and some of the deaths seemed cruel twists of fate. Life between flights is also described, where rations seemed to vary from feast to famine and weather from picturesque sunsets to hurricane force winds and torrential rain. But with the aid of the occasion R&R, Howard and his buddies persisted and generally did so with a sense of humor.

The artwork in the book included photographs of people, notebooks, maps, letters, and Howard Miner’s sketches. The drawings were both pencil and in color, the latter appearing mostly later in the book. Photos of people seemed to predominate and I would have liked to see many more of Howard’s sketches. For the potential reader, the quality of the computer rendering may be a question. On my 7” Amazon Fire, the pictures were crisp and clear, although the writing was sometimes too small to read. I also viewed some of the book using the Kindle app on a PC and here, I could enlarge the pictures so that even the smallest details were apparent.

Overall, the pictures and stories from Sketches of a Black Cat will give you a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the skills, persistence, and life of the pilots and crew that flew the Black Cats in WWII. It’s a story well worth reading…and seeing. ( )

After Ron's father, Howard, passed away, Ron found a treasure trove of pictures, journals and letters. This book takes those writings to create a detailed picture of Howard's time in the Navy as a Black Cat pilot. I enjoyed this book. Howard was quite a character, his stories and adventures were a fascinating look into the life of a WWII pilot. Overall, well worth reading. ( )