How Being Part of History Turned Into a Memoir

Lt. Col. Pilato takes you back to the Sixties, one of the most turbulent times in modern history.  An unpopular war is raging, students are protesting, black neighborhoods are on fire, and women are demanding equality. Angel tells how these events affected her and her decision to join the Air Force.

 As the first woman Air Force officer assigned to manage an Officers’ Club and the first to run one on a fighter base in Southeast Asia, she gives a unique perspective of the war.

In her memoir Angel’s Truck Stop, A Woman’s Love, Laughter, and Loss during the Vietnam War she recounts starting out as a starry-eyed idealist only to realize that she’s going to have to learn how to manage the conflicts, challenges and choices she faces in her trailblazing position.

Her last assignment in 1971 at Udorn Air Base, Thailand is where she encounters testosterone-fueled fighter pilots who take off on sorties over dangerous targets in North Vietnam.  To celebrate their aerial victories the pilots drive their squadron truck into the Officers’ Club lobby and then head to the bar to drink ‘til dawn.  They soon christen the O-Club “Angel’s Truck Stop,” which becomes the backdrop for her authentic war story.