The Eagle Above: Chronicles of an American Fighter Pilot is the true story of Colonel Stanley E. Corvin, Sr. At the age of nineteen, he went to Canada in mid-1941 and enlisted in the RCAF to train as a fighter pilot. In England, he was an RAF flight officer in the 121st Eagle Squadron, which was made up of Americans.
Flying Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes, Corvin flew fighter sweeps and escorted bombers into Germany. Transferred to the USAAF, then-Captain Corvin flew P-51Ds in North Africa, Sicily, and from Iwo Jima on VLR missions into Japan. Sent to South Korea in 1950, he flew F-86 Sabers against North Korean, Russian, and Chinese pilots. In 1954 at Tsuiki AFB, Japan, he was an instructor pilot teaching former WWII Japanese pilots to fly jet aircraft. One student was Maj. Gen. Minoru Genda, who helped plan and carry out the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Colonel Corvin's remarkable career included becoming a test pilot at Edwards AFB and flying the first F-4 Phantom IIs in West Germany.