Navigating the Course

David Fanshel's memoir of his childhood in the Bronx during the Great Depression, and his years training and serving as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II is an illuminating narrative of major events in the first half of the 20th Century. At the same time, the dynamics inherent in growing up in a large immigrant family is a story of ongoing relevance for individuals of all backgrounds even to the present day. David Fanshel was born in New York City in 1923, the third child of Russian Jewish parents. As a teenager in the midst of the Depression, David watched his father struggle to support the family. When tragedy struck in 1936, the network of extended relatives saved the family from disaster, but could not spare them from the stresses of their circumstances, which had significant ramifications for the younger generation. When war was declared in December 1941, David, a freshman at the City College of New York, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and served three years active duty from 1943 until 1945. He was commissioned as a navigator and flew 39 missions with the 15th Air Force 450th Bomb Group, 722nd Squadron, in Manduria, Italy, a tour of duty with a very low survival rate. The only Jewish member in an air crew of ten men, the shared experiences in meeting the demands of combat had a transforming influence upon him to expand my view of the world and my place within the human stream.