The Drums of War: An Autobiography by T.C. Corbett, 1917-1924

The Drums of War is a deeply personal and intimate account of a young man's flight training in 1918-where he learned about discipline, fear, courage, adversity, and depression-and his difficult return to civilian life and eventual hope for a brighter future.

Cy Corbett relished the excitement and adrenalin rush of early flight. During training, he experienced sixteen forced landings and one serious crash, but considered himself lucky: several fellow cadets were killed or seriously maimed. And through this, he learned that his "Irish Melancholy"-his depression-seemed to vanish while he was in flight.

The book begins with his contemporaneous journal entries as a student debating the merits of his country going to war alongside an old enemy-Britain. The author then joined the most perilous of services, the Army Air Corps. After earning his wings, and finally en route to his scheduled deployment overseas, Cy found himself in a train car waking to shouts and celebrating in the streets. The Armistice had been declared.

Returning home to a mundane civilian life was filled with confusion, disarray, romantic disappointment, the death of his mother, and finally, near the end, a ray of hope for the future.

This book is the first volume of a serialized autobiography written by former pilot and newspaperman Cy Corbett. The story is told through flight journals, diaries, and remembrances written fifty years after the fact. Cy's observations progress from a matter-of-fact record of events to deeper reflections of how the army changed his life.