Flight To Success: An Ordinary Man

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Friday, July 1, 2016

An Ordinary Man

An Extraordinary Life!

Friday's Fabulous Flyer...

My friend Owen Zupp, pilot, author, and all around great guy has released his new book. This book is about about Phillip Zupp, his Dad. I believe that living an extraordinary life runs in Owen's family. Meet Phillip Zupp, today's Friday Flyer.

Phillip and Owen Zupp

Who was my father?
"That single question was the genesis of this book.

In so many ways, he was an enigma. He was a quietly spoken gentleman that never allowed a lady to open a door and stood when one entered a room. He was comfortable briefing a room of pilots, but loathed public speaking. Yet, somewhere within his small frame, was a man that had lived a life few could imagine.

As I grew up, I knew he had been a soldier and that he had been an Air Force fighter pilot. I also knew, vaguely, that he had fought in wars as I played with his uniforms, flying suits, holsters and helmets. However, his medals were still in the packages they had arrived in years before, unmounted and with pieces of spare ribbon and oak leaf clusters untouched. I was in my teens before I began to piece his story together, but he was never forthcoming with anything significant about his service. It was just a snippet here or a fragment there.

Only when I had left my childhood behind did he finally take me into his confidence about his time at war. He would speak of lessons to be learned, close calls and the value of luck. Not once did the concept of heroism ever pass his lips.

Following his death, I cleaned out old trunks and pored over documents. Details began to fill the gaps but, inevitably, more questions than answers were raised. I began speaking with his squadron mates, but they didn’t even know that he’d served in the Army and his Commando colleagues only said that they’d heard he had joined the Air Force. Similarly, the majority of those he encountered in civilian life knew nothing of his military service. However, from all of these people who had played a role in his life, I was overwhelmed by the wealth of information and what my father had actually done.

I was left in a state of flux. What do I do with all of this information? At first I began to collate it for the benefit of our family. This was more than an accumulation of cold facts, however, this was a story. In fact, I believed it was a book.

‘Without Precedent’ was born

‘Without Precedent’ recounts the life of commando and fighter pilot, Phillip Zupp. One man who served in two very different wars.

From humble rural beginnings, surrounded by drought and The Great Depression, he forged an incredible life with little more than courage and tenacity. During World War Two, he saw combat on the ground in New Guinea before patrolling the devastation of Hiroshima and Tokyo as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces. In Korea, Phillip flew 201 combat sorties amid intense ground fire and the enemy’s ever-threatening MiG fighters.

Peace brought a career that spanned the globe and the skies above it. All the while, the intriguing story of the search for a downed airman, a damaged jet and the controversy surrounding the award of first Australian Purple Heart lay dormant. Until now."