Semi-OT, re the Red Baron - but AMAZING!

I found this by sheer luck. Before Dale M. Titler died in 2014, he wrote a =
few non-fiction books - mostly in the 1970s, when he was already well over =
40.=20

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1016812.Dale_Titler=20

A young boy read one of them. This is a long story about how it changed his=
 life.=20

http://www.semopress.com/dear-mr-titler/=20

By J. Malcolm Garcia.=20

First paragraphs:=20

Years ago, a boy bought his first book, a paperback bound copy of The Day T=
he Red Baron Died. The boy had thought the Red Baron was nothing more than =
Snoopy=E2=80=99s imaginary foe in the Peanuts comic strip he would read eve=
ry Sunday in The Chicago Tribune. The boy was only twelve. He had not known=
 the Baron had actually lived, had a real name=E2=80=94Manfred von Richthof=
en=E2=80=94and had been a German fighter pilot in World War I. His squadron=
 was called The Flying Circus. All the planes were painted brilliant, taunt=
ing colors. The Red Baron shot down eighty Allied planes from his scarlet r=
ed Fokker triplane in the skies over France.=20

According to a blurb on the back cover, he was killed in action at the age =
of twenty-five on April 21, 1918, when he chased an Allied plane far behind=
 Allied lines, putting himself in harm=E2=80=99s way, a mistake he had alwa=
ys warned his pilots against. No one knew who had fired the fatal shot. A C=
anadian fighter pilot or Australian and British anti-aircraft gunners? The =
book promised an answer.=20

The boy bought the book and read it quickly. Intrigued by the idea of fight=
er pilots and encouraged by a determined and curious mother, he also wrote =
to the author, Dale M. Titler, with questions.=20

His letter prompted a reply, and a correspondence ensued between the author=
 and the boy that has lasted to this day, almost forty years later. Their r=
elationship advanced and matured as the boy grew to manhood. In all that ti=
me, they had never met or spoken to one another.=20

Mr. Titler was an anonymous, benign presence. The boy put his thoughts and =
questions on paper and mailed his letters into a depthless void over hundre=
ds of miles from his childhood home in suburban Chicago to Mr. Titler=E2=80=
=99s mailbox in Gulfport,=20

Mississippi. The boy was buoyed by the assurance that he would receive a ki=
nd and encouraging response.=20

Hang in there, Mr. Titler wrote on January 30, 1980. I think you have the s=
park and drive to accomplish what you want in the world. Don=E2=80=99t try =
to get it all at once, however. Remember that living is the reason for life=
....=20

(snip)=20



Lenona.