In 1942 Ralph left behind days behind an adding
machine, week nights in accounting courses and weekends courting sweetheart Bette Lou and joined the Army Air Corps. He survived cadet shenanigans and rookie pilot mistakes to join the "Mighty 8th Air Force" flying over Nazi-occupied Europe.
But nothing in his training prepared him for bailing out of his B-17 over occupied France. There, he found himself
forced to rely on the courage and kindness of ordinary French men and women, who risked everything to help him. This is his story and theirs.