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George David Geib, Jr. (1924-2016) was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943. After basic training at Lincoln, Nebraska, he received assignments to Springfield, Missouri, and to Santa Ana Army Air Base and Cal Aero Academy in California. He received his pilot wings in Phoenix in June 1944, and his glider pilot wings shortly thereafter. George shipped out to England on the Queen Mary, arriving in November 1944. While assigned to Troop Carrier, he learned to fly the C-47 two-engine airplane which transported paratroopers, wounded troops, and supplies all over Europe. He also flew prisoners of war, and he towed gliders. After the war, he piloted VIPs all over Europe, and he sat in for a day on the War Trials in Nuremberg, Germany. He arrived home in July 1946. After earning a degree in economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara, George managed a retail store in the coastal village of La Jolla, where he met his wife, Lucy. He then worked in the title insurance and financial arenas, eventually serving as area vice president of a major southern California savings and loan, where he managed ten branches. George retired in 1988, and he and Lucy moved to Prescott, Arizona, where they spent many years volunteering as museum docents and Chamber of Commerce tour guides. During that time, he wrote this book. In 2004, they moved to Nebraska to be closer to their daughter and her family. S. G. Benson is George Geib's daughter, a forester with a solid background in journalism. Her education includes a Bachelor of Science in Forestry; postgraduate work in English, business, and journalism; and a Master's degree in Organizational Management (Natural Resources). From the mid-1970s through 2018, she worked forestry jobs in Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska while moonlighting as a reporter, editor, publisher, and freelance non-fiction writer. Numerous newspapers and magazines have published her articles, and she received several awards from the Nebraska Press Women. Sandy and her husband, Barry, relocated in 2018 to North Carolina, where she worked remotely for the Nebraska Forest Service until she retired in 2023. In 2021, she published her first book, My Mother's Keeper: One Family's Journey Through Dementia, a memoir depicting the trauma and trials her family encountered during her parents' later years. In addition to kickstarting her writing career, she tells tales at local storyteller gatherings.
