Propelling stories

Paul Saitowitz

A.J. “Duke” Libby, a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot in the late 1950s,

never shot down another aircraft. He was never shot at and was never

taken as a prisoner of war. In six years, he never saw regular active

duty, but the adventurous path he followed during his tenure in the

military would shape the rest of his life.

It was the period between the Korean War and the conflict in

Vietnam, and his mission was to fly through South America to set up

infrastructure for NASA. As a rare young Jewish man serving in the

armed forces at that time, Libby savored every place he went to and

every person he met along the way. The 70-year-old Newport Beach

resident’s face still lights up when recalling those days.

“Really, we just had a blast,” Libby said. “We were just traveling

around having a lot of fun. We were still professional, but in a time

of peace, we were able to enjoy what we were doing.”

After finishing up his duty to Uncle Sam, Libby went on to a long

career in aerospace, working as a production test pilot, sales

engineer and marketing representative. He was in charge of the

McDonnell Douglas Latin American division and retired in 1990.

Ever the storyteller, he would often recount his tales as a young

aviator below the equator to whomever was willing to listen. About

five years ago, he decided to put those stories on paper. Rather than

make it a memoir of the period, he decided to make it fictional.

“I based it on my experiences, but I like to make things up and

embellish a bit,” he said. “Even when I tell people stories, I add a

few parts here and there to make it better.”

Writing “Uniform Romeo,” -- the phonetic code words for U and R,

and a loose description of the book’s main character-- was a labor of

love, but sometimes the labor outweighed the love.

“I thought about writing for a very long time, and then when I

started, it was sporadic,” Libby said. “It wasn’t until my wife found

a class on writing your first book at UCI that I really got serious

about it.”

From that point, he wrote seriously on an almost-daily basis for

about two years. Through the class, he was introduced to a writers’

group, where members would meet once a month to share and comment on

the chapters they had written.

“That really helped me out -- getting other people’s feedback was

great,” he said. “We were all in the same boat, trying to help each

other.”

Although the book goes into detail regarding specifics about

helicopters as well as a good deal of military jargon, Libby wrote

with a broad audience in mind. It’s basically a coming-of-age story

that takes place within the context of a young man in the military.

“There’s a lot of humor and a lot of fun injected into the story,

and I think that is what makes it easy to read,” he said. “I’ve had

comments from women who have enjoyed the book, so I think it’s pretty

universal.”

Libby has already begun working on his next novel, about a

helicopter pilot in Machu Picchu and has a publisher who is

interested.

“The thing with me is that if I’m going to write a book, you can

guarantee it will take place in South America, and it will have

helicopters involved.”