The Wrong Stuff cover art

The Wrong Stuff

The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator

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The Wrong Stuff

By: Truman Smith
Narrated by: James Killavey
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About this listen

Between April and July 1944, Truman Smith flew 35 bombing missions over France and Germany. He was only 20 years old. Although barely adults, Smith and his peers worried about cramming a lifetime's worth of experience into every free night, each knowing he probably would not survive the next bombing mission. Written with blunt honesty, wry humor, and insight, The Wrong Stuff is Smith's gripping memoir of that time. In a new preface, the author comments with equal honesty and humor on the impact this book has had on his life.

©1996 Truman and Margot Smith Trust (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks Air Forces Armed Forces Military Military & War World War II Veteran War Witty Comedy US Air Force

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Critic reviews

"...the book proves that the nation's greatest resources are its young people, ready and willing to serve their country." ( St. Joseph (MO.) News-Press)
"If you thought gallantry and valor were the only stuff war is made of, think again. He makes one statement which is not understood by anyone who has not served in combat: 'In order to out-bad the bad guys, you've got to be badder than they are.'" ( Tulsa World)
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Great subject matter but poor narration.

Super detail of life in the Mighty 8th with some good down to earth stuff. The narrator however needs to find a new career, weird intonation and emphasis put in odd parts of sentences, sounds like a robot or one of those crappy videos on youtube which has automated narration-a shame, still worth a listen though.

They should re do this book using Pete Larkin who did ''Hell Above Earth
The Incredible True Story of an American WWII Bomber Commander and the Copilot Ordered to Kill Him'' which I've just finished, superb reading style and highly recommended.

Great subject matter but poor narration

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What other book might you compare The Wrong Stuff to, and why?

This is a great personal account and has a lot of very funny moments, in this way it's more light hearted than other combat books such as 'A Higher Call'

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Great tales from some of the antics during flying, such as sleeping on route to a bomb run

What a wonderful account of young 8th AF Pilots

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This book introduced some thought provoking concepts regarding what is required to win a war. Without spoiling it you can see the validity of his philosophy when you look at the wars of the last 40 odd years.
That aside, this is an amazing story of a 20 year old thrust into the thick of air combat as a B 17 Bomber co-pilot. You experience the fear and excitement 5 miles above the ground as the crew strive to survive first 25 combat tours, then as they near that target the marker is moved to 30 before the final move to 35 combat missions. For the crew to reach that figure is indeed a fantastic achievement, couple that with the huge amount of "wrong stuff" that conspired against them makes it even more monumental. This is a story of human sacrifice at its best and its worst, with an early recognition of the mental impact day light air campaigns had on the crews. This is definitely on my listen to again list.

Interesting title that makes total sense.

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Clearly Truman Smith was a very good pilot as must have been 'Moon'. You couldn't survive a 35 mission tour on luck alone. When Truman takes over the plane for his last few missions it's apparent how much more than pilot ability is required to survive.
What a great read (listen). A very easy style of narrative perfectly suited to describing a life of
continual stress. You are with him all the way.

What an amazing guy

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This story took me to 1944 & put me in the B17 with Smitty & his crew . ...What a great read it's been....My third listen in 18months.

Fantastic stuff.👍

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Both funny and informative, with many stores that disagree with the usual books and histories on this subject. Highly recommended, the performance is a little stilted and place names etc can jar a little on English ears.

a great piece of WW2 aviation history

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Great story and amazingly written, only down side is the reader is not the best and is sometimes distracting.

Great Story

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a good story, very badly let down by the tinny mechanical voice reading it. Pity.

sounds like its read by a computer.

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I normally love these types of book and have several downloaded, but sadly the narrators voice on this was too much like an artificial life form that it detracted from the story itself
so much so I have actually deleted it from my device and got a credit from amazon which is excellent

no doubt a good story but cannot abide the voice

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