Colonel Robert W. Gruenhagen - USAF Ret'd lost his fight with cancer. One of the last acts of this long time friend was to proof read my new book. He was surrounded by three generations of family.
We have lost a massive aviation encyclopedia (not just the Mustang) of knowledge and experience.
I will miss him and his counsel very much.
I never met Col. Gruenhagen, Bill, but ONLY ONE of the things that "stands out" in his famous book is that, the first edition came out at a time when most - in fact, nearly ALL - books on the Mustang were waaay less than, maybe, 80% correct, in almost EVERY "area" of the "Mustang story." Gruenhagen's book, which came out about 50 yrs ago (my copy is from 1986, I believe) Is OVER 95% (I've read that figure, and I believe it) correct.
I won't name all the Mustang books that I have on my over-capacity set of library shelves, but the vast majority of the ones published before your "P-51B Bastard book" came out, all "sprout" the corners of sticky notes sticking out on pages with absolutely wrong info, and also, pages with lesser errors occasionally have the same kind of "tabs" from sticky notes. Your "P-51B ... Bastard" book, is ALSO full of same kind of "tabs," but
those tabs mark parts of the book that I refer to often when I'm refuting "fake news" on FB posts, etc.
But, I digress. I know that Bob Gruenhagen cannot be "replaced" by anyone, but we're know that you're doing a good job of "filling his shoes."
We also know, that if you want any kind of "help" (as if you really need it!), there are a number of us who are waiting to hear from you.
Keep the faith, my friend.
Tom
