Discussion with slides focusing on Gene Moran of Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin. During WWII, Gene, a 19-year-old tail gunner on a Flying Fortress bomber plane, was shot down over Nazi Germany and fell four miles without a parachute. He survived, but was quickly captured by the Germans. My talk will focus on Gene's war and the development of the book which told his story - Tailspin.

John Armbruster grew up in rural Central Wisconsin and currently resides outside Viroqua, Wisconsin. He graduated from UW-Madison with a journalism degree and then went on to write for a public radio program and two Wisconsin newspapers: The La Crosse Tribune and the Marshfield News Herald. John returned to UW-Madison and earned a degree in secondary education-social studies, and later, a master’s in education from Viterbo University. John recently retired after a 30-year career teaching a variety of middle school and high school social studies courses. John has two sons: Matthew, a police officer in Madison, and Joe, a biosecurity technician for the USDA in Iowa.
Tailspin is John’s first book.