Book excerpt: From the snows of Alaska to V-E Day in Europe, this is the biography of US Army Air Forces Captain Robert Uhrig during WWII. Told in his own words from extensive diary entries and letters to his wife, "Toots," the story starts in the late 1930s at Patterson Field OH and follows Bob through the war as an aircraft mechanic and then Engineering Officer for the 36th Troop Carrier Squadron and their Douglas C-47s. Bob's wartime career took him from the jump school at Ft Benning to supplying British units in North Africa to the Sicily and Normandy invasions and all the other airborne operations in Europe. Invasion Stripes is also a deeply personal story of love as Bob and Toots endure almost three years of wartime separation with only their photographs and letters to sustain them across thousands of miles. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic, it is a unique and detailed first person story of the American airlift forces of WWII. 248 pages, black and white illustrations, maps.