Wolfgang W. E. Samuel

COMING TO COLORADO is Colonel Samuel's sequel to his bestselling memoir, GERMAN BOY, which I read and thoroughly enjoyed several years ago. This one is almost as good. It's his story of how he arrived in America with his mother after she'd married a USAF sergeant in Germany. He was fifteen and had only just barely finished eighth grade, and he spoke no English. So he was starting from scratch when he settled in the Denver area, part of a new family. But his determination and grit worked in his favor. He learned the language and got through HS, finishing in the top half of a class of over 700. College was too hard for him initially, so at his stepfather's suggestion, he enlisted in the Air Force and became a skilled clerk-typist, and got married at just twenty to a very spoiled rich girl from Texas. Stationed in England, they had a baby and the marriage disintegrated and ended in divorce. Using the GI Bill, he successfully completed college and ROTC, and was commissioned an officer in the USAF, which had been his dream. He remarried, trained as a navigator in strategic recon aircraft, and moved up through the ranks to full Colonel.

While it sounds like a rather ordinary 'success story,' it's really not, considering all the obstacles Samuel had to overcome. Colonel Samuel is a fine writer, especially considering English is a second language (and there is no hint of a ghost writer,), and I admire all of his accomplishments. Very, very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (mehr)