In 1916, just thirteen years after the Wright brothers' first flight, a group of twenty-eight college students, and sons of America's early 20th century aristocracy, decided to try the sport of motorized flight and formed a campus flying club. The Millionaires' Unit is the story of a gilded generation of young men from the zenith of privilege: a Rockerfeller, the son of the head of the Union Pacific Railroad, several who counted friends and relatives among presidents and statesmen of the day. They had it all and, remarkably by modern standards, they were prepared to risk it all to fight a distant war in France. For readers of Flyboys, The greatest generation, or Flags of our fathers, this patriotic, romantic, absorbing book is narrative military history of the best kind.

I. EARTH. New Haven, June 3, 1916: sand -- Gales Ferry, June 3-18, 1916: preparation -- Gales Ferry, June 18-23, 1916: the race -- Peacock Point, Jul-Sep 1916: a new life -- New Haven, Fall 1916: the Yale Aero Club -- New Haven, Jan-Mar 1917: We're off -- II. AIR. Palm Beach, Apr-May 1917: The Wags -- Palm Beach, Apr 19, 1917: The Tap -- Huntington, June-July 1917: flights of romance -- Huntington, July 28, 1917: broken wings -- France, Aug-Sep 1917: we are so green -- America, Sep 1917: building an Air Force -- Peacock Point, 1917-1918: the fallen leader -- France, Fall 1917: a Parisian education -- Le Croisic, Nov 1917: game to end -- Felixstowe, Feb 1918: The Spider Web -- England and Scotland, Winter 1917-1918: getting the wind up -- III. FIRE. Dunkirk, Winter-Spring 1918: on the edge -- Dunkirk, Mar-Apr 1918: flaming onions -- Paris, St. Inglevert, May-Jun 1918: the Northern Bombing Group -- Dunkirk, May-July 1918: Mournful Mary -- The Alps, Jul-Aug 1918: O, mia nosediva -- Couderkerque, Aug-Sep 1918: The Ace -- Couderkerque, Oct 1918: The Lone Wolf -- Villingen, Nov 1918: flight -- Schoore, Dec 1918: this long separation -- IV. HOME. 1919 and after: the decisive power -- Epilogue, New Haven, 2006.