Miss Montana Pilot Pens Book that goes straight to the Top
Bryan Douglass, one of the pilots and driving forces behind the resurrection and rebuilding of the C-47 aircraft dubbed the ‘Miss Montana’, has just published a book about the experience that debuted at number one on Amazon in the Military Aviation History category.
Douglass, who was in Seattle on personal business on Saturday, shared his thoughts about his book, ‘Every Reason to Fail; The Unlikely Story of Miss Montana and the D-Day Squadron’.
“I had another title in mind, but then I went back and did my research and watched once again the CBS Sunday Morning show with Richard Schlesinger did and it aired on June 2, while we were in England,” began Douglass. “About a minute into that show they show us flying, and he’s on board. We’re flying around the Statue of Liberty, and the narrator says, ‘On a recent day, you might have mistaken this as another iconic airplane flying around the Hudson River, but it was one stop on an incredible journey that had every reason to fail. I thought that really encapsulated everything.”
Douglass, in his own self-effacing manner, gave the credit for the book to the hundreds of people who helped to make the resurrection and refitting of the aircraft possible.
“The truth is that they wrote the story, I just tell it,” he said. “It’s not my story to sell, it’s really everybody’s to tell, including the volunteers, the donors and all of Missoula, so anybody who wants to have any of the crew sign it, we’ll be happy to do that.”
Douglass, who has never had much contact with the media, learned in short order the power of the press.
“I’ve got a whole chapter in there on the media,” he said. “It was you, it was Richard Schlesinger, it was the TV folks in Missoula that was a big part of the whole thing and it was a fun part because none of us had much experience, and I’m not sure who said it, but it was a ‘feel good story’, and something that everybody needed right then.”
Douglass, who again deflected the praise for the book’s initial success, expressed surprise at how the book debuted on Amazon.
“Amazon boosts all kinds of things, but, and you’d better be sitting down for this,” he said with a chuckle. “It was the number one new release in the Military Aviation History genre. I think that’s kind of like winning the championship in the Patriot League, so it’s like winning Division 15.”
Douglass has ordered many copies of the book to be given away and some will be for sale at the Museum of Mountain Flying at the Missoula International Airport, however, for those who wish to order their own copy, click here.