Why I Wasn't There

Howard Pierson joined the US Army Air Corps to defend America against the intended exterminators of Europe's Jews. However, he flunked navigation school and then repaired heavy-bomber machine guns. After the peace, he edited a GI newspaper in Germany, reported on trials of war criminals, and helped refugees. Decades later, he discovered to his surprise that his washout as a navigator was a "dirty trick" that a military intelligence officer had perpetrated in defiance of orders from Washington. The McCarthy era had begun early.