From Indian Fort to Flying Fort and Far Beyond

The story traces the life of John Charles (Johnny) Mouat who was born on November 7, 1921 in the middle of a raging blizzard. The birthplace was at Custer, Montana, in the shadow of old Fort Pease at the confluence of the Big Horn and Yellowstone Rivers and near the site on the Little Big Horn where General Custer and many of his troopers were massacred by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors only forty-five years previously. Johnny Mouat was a Depression Child who grew up amidst successive years of poverty, drought, dust storms and grasshopper plagues. Following graduation as valedictorian from high school, he worked two jobs to put himself through business college and ended up as a secretary to Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower who went on to become General in charge of the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944 and President of the United States in 1952. Mouat spent much of World War II piloting B-17 Flying Fortresses from a base in England to targets in Germany. He was badly- injured during a mission to bomb industrial plants in the Ruhr Valley and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery during a mission against ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt. He was also thanked personally by Princess Elizabeth who later became Queen of England. And upon his return to the United States, he was selected during a visit to the Hollywood Canteen for a date with actress Hedy Lamar who danced with him and planted an exotic kiss upon his lips. The author spent three years flying combat missions during the Korean War and was promoted twice from Captain to Lieutenant Colonel during this tour of duty. He was also invited to meet and dine with Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai Shek at their Republic of China Headquarters in Taipei, Formosa (Taiwan). Following ten years as a budget director in a top-level government agency in Washington, D. C. he retired from government and established a guest ranch in Montana's towering Beartooth Mountains on the border of Yellowstone Park. But he was b