By including the stories of how he worked with Gene to unearth his painful past all while supporting his young wife in her battle with Stage IV cancer, Armbruster transcends the genre in powerful, surprising ways. While it centers on the vivid and harrowing tale of Gene Moran's ordeal as a German POW in WWII-and the trauma that followed him home-the book is more than a tribute to Armbruster's courageous friend and neighbor. ' Tailspin is a survival story you'll never forget.

Heather Shumaker, author of Saving Arcadia More than a war story, it's a universal story of family filled with truth and compassion.' Tailspin unveils the twin stories of two remarkable, resilient men facing the biggest trials of their lives. 'A survival story that bridges generations, told with heart-rending poignancy. An extraordinary, moving account of survival and endurance.' 'Moran's survival is a cinematically grand story, bigger than life but not fantastical, dramatically gripping as well as emotionally stirring. It's a story of two men's separate journeys confronting trauma and loss. What will happen to his wife and his two young children? John must continue uncovering Gene's story of survival as he himself confronts the greatest trial of his life. But both men persevere, bonded by their close and growing friendship.Īs the interviews go on, John faces an ordeal of his own. But John has no idea what wounds he's reopening. Gene, nearing his ninetieth birthday, recounts incredible tales.

So begins a series of 'Thursdays with Gene' interviews. But when John, a young history teacher, learns of Gene's amazing fall, he's desperate to learn more. His nine children knew little of their dad's war story. When Gene returned home, he kept those memories locked up for nearly seventy years. Captured by the Germans, he survived a harrowing eighteen months as a prisoner of war, including a six-hundred-mile death march in 1945 across Central Europe. World War II tail gunner Gene Moran fell four miles through the sky without a parachute and lived.

When the elderly Gene Moran finally shares his saga, John has no idea of the wounds he's reopening. A rookie social studies teacher overhears a conversation about a World War II tail gunner who survived a four-mile fall from the sky.

Tailspin by John Armbruster