Tailwinds: How Love, Faith and a Future Saint Lifted an Airman Through WWII

Arthur Haumesser was just 22 years old when he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a radio operator on a B-17 bomber during World War II. He and his future wife, Ruth, wrote more than 500 letters to one another over the course of the war detailing their experiences on the battle front and the home front. When his father was hit by a car and killed in Buffalo in 1944, Arthur could not come home for the funeral and those letters became a lifeline-a tailwind-to carry him through 30 missions over German targets. An equally important tailwind was the Catholic chaplain who looked out for the soldier after his father’s death and introduced him to Padre Pio, a future saint and guiding influence for the rest of Arthur’s life.