Will Cunningham

May 7th, 1970. It is midnight over Laos’ holy Plain of Jars, but the darkness is anything but restful. On a routine mission “truck hunting” against the North Vietnamese Army’s supply lines, gunship Stinger 883 and her crew of 9 men don’t even see the anti-aircraft fire that hits them from below. With one wing shot clear away, and deep into hostile territory, the crew is forced to attempt the impossible—a two-hour return flight, with too-little fuel, over the highest mountain in Laos. Disobeying direct orders to bail out of the devastated aircraft because of their loyalty to pilot Al Milacek, the crew completes one of the most notable and most harrowing flights in Air Force history, to land safely at their home base at Udorn. For their action, the entire crew receives the Mackay Trophy, awarded every year to the Air Force’s most meritorious flight. And history promptly forgets them. 2015. Struggling writer Will Cunningham is coming fresh out of a mid-life crisis when he is approached to tell the story of Stinger 883’s impossible flight and improbable pilot, Oklahoma wheat farmer Al Milacek. Reaching for the story as much for a personal lifeline as a compelling narrative, Cunningham is drawn into the intimate acquaintance of a remarkable American family. As the story of Stinger 883 emerges, under the shadow of Milacek’s terminal cancer, Cunningham is thrust into the still-hot inner conflicts related to Vietnam, the power of a man’s life well-lived, and the complex legacy of America’s Vietnam veterans—and the many millions of people wondering about the meaning and value of their life and legacy. Flashing between 1970 Asia and present-day Oklahoma, Way Past Bingo is poignantly written, meticulously researched, and narratively gripping. What might have remained only a foot note in the annals of Air Force history becomes a story about the power of kindness, courage, and tenacity. It becomes the story of two men pondering the past, and finding themselves not only in remembering but in relationship. Magnet Ass is at once a potent war story, a lushly written memoir, and a tale of the power of the everyday impossible, which any of us can strive to achieve.