title: From Silver Wings to Golden Years
author:  Charles E. Romans 
description: The first nine years of Charles Romans life were horse and buggy days. Farming was with horses and manpower. A Midwest farm was a good place to ride out the great depression. There was plenty to eat. At the age of nine the family moved to his fathers childhood home in Kentucky. The 60 acres had 40 acres of pristine woods and rocky hills with Green River along the back, a marvelous playground for a teen aged boy. High School vacations were spent in Illinois driving tractors and seeing the beginning of mechanized farming. He was still a teen ager when he got his wings and officer bars in the Army Air Corp. He had been a straight A student in High School. He was consistently rated as E for excellent by his Air Corp trainers. Skill at operating vehicles served him well for driving street cars and buses in Portland, Oregon as well as several years of coast to coast trucking. Although photography is his sideline or avocation he became a well-known Portland photographer especially in weddings. He has seen tremendous changes in farming, transportation and photography. He has lived the changes. He is a slow learner and a plodder but isnt satisfied until he is best at what he is doing. He doesnt see anything special about that since he thinks anybody else can do the same thing.
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  ![Cover](images/9780446567077.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  [ALSO BY T. E. CRUISE](WINGSofGOLD_adca-1.html)
  
  
  [Copyright](WINGSofGOLD_copy.html)
  
  
  [BOOK I: 1943–1945](WINGSofGOLD_part-1.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 1](WINGSofGOLD_chap-1.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 2](WINGSofGOLD_chap-2.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 3](WINGSofGOLD_chap-3.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 4](WINGSofGOLD_chap-4.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 5](WINGSofGOLD_chap-5.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 6](WINGSofGOLD_chap-6.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 7](WINGSofGOLD_chap-7.html)
  
  
  [BOOK II: 1945–1953](WINGSofGOLD_part-2.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 8](WINGSofGOLD_chap-8.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 9](WINGSofGOLD_chap-9.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 10](WINGSofGOLD_chap-10.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 11](WINGSofGOLD_chap-11.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 12](WINGSofGOLD_chap-12.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 13](WINGSofGOLD_chap-13.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 14](WINGSofGOLD_chap-14.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 15](WINGSofGOLD_chap-15.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 16](WINGSofGOLD_chap-16.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 17](WINGSofGOLD_chap-17.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 18](WINGSofGOLD_chap-18.html)
  
  
  [CHAPTER 19](WINGSofGOLD_c