Bücher von Roger Thompson

D. Alexis Hart and Roger Thompson offer rich academic inquiry into the idea of "the veteran" as well as into ways that veteran culture has been fostered or challenged in writing classrooms, in writing centers, and in college communities more generally.For good reasons, the rise of veterans studies has occurred within the discipline of writing studies, with its interdisciplinary approach to scholarship, pedagogy, and community outreach. Writing faculty are often a point of first contact with veteran students, and writing classrooms are by their nature the site of disclosures, providing opportunities to make connections and hear narratives that debunk the myth of the stereotypical combat veteran of popular culture. Presenting a more nuanced approach to understanding "the veteran" leads not only to more useful research, but also to more wide-ranging and significant scholarship and community engagement. Such an approach recognizes veterans as assets to the college campus, encourages institutions to customize their veterans programs and courses, and leads to more thoughtful engagement with veterans in the writing classroom.About the CCCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric (SWR) SeriesIn this series, the methods of studies vary from the critical to historical to linguistic to ethnographic, and their authors draw on work in various fields that inform composition-including rhetoric, communication, education, discourse analysis, psychology, cultural studies, and literature. Their focuses are similarly diverse-ranging from individual writers and teachers, to classrooms and communities and curricula, to analyses of the social, political, and material contexts of writing and its teaching.

In the last year of his career as an American Airlines captain, Roger Thompson met a man who claimed military experience identical to his own. The man was an imposter, but the incident inspired Contrails, a collection of aviation stories spanning Mr. Thompson's 37-year career. Some of the stories in Contrails are tragic; some are exciting. All are true.Contrails includes Mr. Thompson's introduction to aviation, a discussion of the 1960's military draft, and a description of the training regimen and assorted aircraft mishaps associated with naval aviation. It describes jet combat over Laos and Vietnam from the perspective of a Navy carrier pilot. Contrails details the untold story of TWA flights that almost ended in catastrophe as a direct result of the 1986 merger between Ozark Airlines and TWA. It explains the interaction of airline crews during routine and emergency situations.Contrails exults in the beauty of flight and narrates harrowing close calls experienced in the cockpits of jet fighters and jet airliners. It looks behind that locked cockpit door to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of airline crews in flight. Contrails is a book about the adventures and the incredible good luck of an aviation survivor.