AUTHOR BIO

He was only a boy when the bombs rained down on Pearl Harbor pulling America into WWII. As he watched the grim images of war flash before him in a darkened theater in Bellmore, L.I. he silently vowed to be in the next one. When his high school friends questioned his decision to join the Marines and go to Korea, he replied: "I don't want anyone else doing my dying for me."                                                                    

He joined the 1st Marine Division just weeks before the truce ending the Korean War was signed—time enough to get “shot at and missed,” he would say. His war over, he then pursued his boyhood dream of becoming a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, flew two combat tours in Vietnam and earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses. When he wasn’t getting shot at he stood watch on bases surrounding the old Soviet Union during the Cold War—a sobering reminder to the Kremlin of the reach U.S. air power.

When Muammar Gaddafi brought down the Senusi regime of King Idris, he was there, training the fighter pilots of the Libyan Air Force; one of whom was killed on a night mission over Tripoli. In a special ceremony honoring his fallen friend, the Libyan Commander insisted that Vito lead the "Missing Man Formation,” or it would not be flown. It is one of the many intriguing tales in his book, Close Calls and Other Neat Stories (recently republished under the title, Close Calls Revisited).  

Indeed, it was from a life lived during one the most tumultuous periods in recent times that inspired the author to record his participation in those events while they were still fresh in his mind. Vito Tomasino started his writing career rather late in life and has written three books, each in a different genre. Yet, each of them ring with the same authenticity…the same truth that could only come from a man who “walked” in that history.