Showing results by author "Derek Robinson" in All Categories

North Africa, 1942. Dust, heat, thirst, flies. For those who liked that sort of thing, it was a good clean fight: nothing to harm but the sand, the enemy and yourself. Striking hard and escaping fast, Fanny Barton’s squadron play Russian roulette, flying their clapped out Tomahawks on ground-strafing forays. On the ground, the men of Captain Lampard’s SAS patrol drive hundreds of miles behind enemy lines to plant bombs on German aircraft.

Having survived a double tour on Lancasters in WW2 (and won two DFCs), Flight Lieutenant Silk rejoins Bomber Command much later and qualifies to fly the Vulcan bomber. Welcoming him, the airbase commander says: “You have the best, and the worst, job in the world. You have the Vulcan, incomparably the finest bomber. That's the best bit. Your job is to fly to the Soviet Union and destroy cities.

In his autobiography, emergency medicine physician Dr. Derek J. Robinson recounts his upbringing in an unconventional African American family in Shreveport, LA, where the path to college, let alone medical school, was wrought with the barriers of prejudice, loss, doubt, and low societal expectations. With the love of family and friends, the help of dedicated mentors who saw the extraordinary in him and his own self-determination, Dr. Robinson defied the odds, becoming a celebrated Chicago-based physician, healthcare executive, dedicated husband and father of two, and community servant.