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Acknowledgments Any scholar—anyone who does serious work of any kind—knows how much one must depend on others, for assistance of all kinds, for help, for support. Friends count in this business. So does money, and much of that came from my home institution, Chapman University. It provided me with a sabbatical, as well as one of the most remarkable awards in academe, the Wang-Fradkin.This unique stipend was created decades ago by someone who loved the academics at her school, and set up a fund to enable them to dream dreams. I have also benefited from holding the Henry Salvatori Professorship. But Chapman provided much more, a wonderful history department in which to both teach and learn, study and do research. I am particularly grateful to successive chairs, Leland Estes and Jennifer Keene, and to my students, who identified Tunner early on as a fitting subject for a biography. Historians are old school—or at least this one is—and we still travel to libraries to look at written records. That often means making sense of arcane catalogs and finding aids, moments when experienced librarians are as good as gold. I would like to extend my thanks to the following individuals for all their help in truly making this project possible: at Chapman University, Lorraine Attarian; at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Joseph Caver and Dennis Case; at Air Mobility Command, Kathy Skipper and John Leland; at the National Archives, Ken Schlesinger and, in the Still Photos section, Kelly Moody. There are also some individuals who have earned special mention. I have xii / Acknowledgments benefited for many years being part of the Southern California Social History Study Group, and as always they provided wise counsel. Steve Ross, my dear friend, came through with more good advice than I have any right to enjoy. And I am indebted to all those who consented to interviews for this project. Two other individuals, whom I have never met in person, also provided remarkable assistance. Roger G. Miller and Donald Harrington, U.S. Air Force historians, agreed to look at the entire manuscript for this book, sight unseen, simply because they believe in collegiality.They returned the work loaded with suggestions, ranging from the kind of notation that only comes from close reading , to large innovative ideas that shaped some of the key arguments of this book. Mr. Miller, in particular, was a paradigm of generosity and patience, and I worry that I overstayed my welcome far too many times. To say I am grateful is to indulge in shameful understatement. And in the end, there is always Rita, who makes it all worthwhile. ...

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