News
October 14, 2023
Hot Off The Press!
I am excited to announce the release of my newest book “She Was An American Combat Nurse During World War II“
For more information, including synopsis- Click here!
To Purchase: Direct from the Author – Click here!
From Amazon – Click here!
July 27, 2018
Fearless Female Friday
Meet the Fearless Females of WWII
Recently I was interviewed by author Rebecca Rosenberg and she wrote an excellent blog post about my new book: She Was a WWII Photographer – Behind Enemy Lines. I share her post below, and also ask you to click the title above to visit her website to read about more fascinating, fearless females!
Today we welcome author Jeane Slone to Fearless Female Friday. Jean enjoys researching pieces of the forgotten past, especially involving amazing, powerful female heroines of the forties who experience gender and ethnic discrimination.
I love to write about fearless and amazing women during WW II when most of the men left for the war. The women had to step up and do the men’s jobs.
They said, “We Can Do It” and they did do it!
All my books are meticulously researched and historically accurate. The characters are a combination of real women written in the first person with many photographs, bringing the reader easily into the time period.
Here are some of the fearless women war correspondents in my newly published, She Was A WWII Photographer Behind Enemy Lines.
The 127 brave World War II female war correspondents went above and beyond to capture the events of the war to inform the people on the home front. These women fought against condemnation and hostility from male officers in order to perform their jobs, and proved time and again that they were equal to male reporters.
Dickey Chapelle, a female war correspondent who served during World War II, Korea and Vietnam, was quoted as saying, “When I die, I want to be on patrol with the United States Marines.” Dickey Chapelle was wearing combat boots, a bush hat, and her signature pearl earrings when she was hit by shrapnel from a Vietcong landmine near Chu Lai Air Base on Nov. 4, 1965. She was the first female American war correspondent to be killed in action.
Martha Gellhorn, war correspondent (Ernest Hemmingway’s third wife), secretly stowed away on a hospital ship during D-Day headed for Normandy, France. Gellhorn went ashore on Omaha Beach and was arrested when she returned to England.
Margaret Bourke-White was the first credentialed WW II woman war correspondent with the US Army Air Forces 1942. She helped design the first women’s war correspondent uniform.
Margaret Bourke-White traveled to the Soviet Union just as Germany broke its pact of non-aggression. She was the only foreign photographer in Moscow when German forces invaded. Taking refuge in the U.S. embassy she then captured the bombing on camera. She was known to the Life staff as ‘Maggie the Indestructible.'”
In 1943, Bourke-White was on the British troopship SS Strathallan headed to North Africa to cover the war when the ship was torpedoed. She survived in a lifeboat and was safely rescued by a destroyer in the Mediterranean.
Margaret was the first war correspondent to liberate Buchenwald German concentration camp with General George Patton’s Third Army on April 11, 1945.
Margaret Bourke White photographed piles of dead human bodies and when 2,000 local townspeople were ordered by General Patton to bury them.
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Want to read more books about Fearless women during WW II by Jeane Slone?
She Was A WW II Photographer Behind Enemy Lines
She Was an American Spy During WW II
She Built Ships During WW II
She Flew Bombers During WW II
All available on Amazon. Get autographed copies directly from Jeane at JeaneSlone.com. Get Jeane’s “She Flew Bombers” audiobook here.
Connect with Jeane on Facebook.
July 9, 2018
Press Democrat Review
In early July I was interviewed by Ann Carranza of the Press Democrat regarding my new book “She Was a WWII Photographer – Behind Enemy Lines” and her article was published in the July 9, 2018 edition of the paper. You can read the article by clicking here.
Sept. 21, 2017
SS Jeremiah O’Brien–It Moves!
I received the opportunity to sell my three historical fictions on the SS Jeremiah O’Brien on a cruise during Fleet week. I had toured the ship when researching my book, “She Built Ships During WW II” and was not aware that it still could even move since it was 72 years old now! What a wonderful experience this was. There were over 600 passengers full of excitement to see the Golden Gate Bridge and the Blue Angels, quite a party atmosphere!
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Dec. 15, 2016
The Kiss in San Diego
I have always had a great fondness for the famous photograph of a sailor’s kiss in Times Square on Victory over Japan Day, August 14, 1945.
The story goes that as soon as the end of the war was announced, a sailor grabbed the nearest gal, a nurse, and swirled in a romantic embrace with a kiss. A Photographer shot it and it ended up on the cover of Life Magazine announcing the end of the war.
I have a large poster of it and a one-foot high plaster statue of the event. It brings great emotion to me evoking the feeling of the end of a long arduous war.
When I went to San Diego for a work conference, I hoped I could steal away and go and see the 25-foot statue of “The Kiss”.
I took a trolley and headed out to the Midway. I walked along the beach boardwalk and spied it across the way next to a huge WW II aircraft carrier. It looked interesting but did not appear that large.
The closer I got the bigger the statue became as I was enthralled and drawn to it. I sat on a bench in front of “The Kiss”. Many people speaking foreign languages walked toward the giant emotion-filled statue. I watched couple after couple trying to copy the moving embrace, posing with a leg just so, and a kiss. I sat there for quite a while enjoying the variety of people copying the fun and positive energy that “The Kiss” captured.
Feb. 26, 2016
Hands On!
She Flew Bombers
When researching “She Flew Bombers” I wanted to see a Curtiss Jenny World War ONE biplane and feel the fabric and wood flying machine. This was one of the first planes a Woman Airforce Service Pilot learned how to fly as a young girl.
I asked at every airshow and plane event and no one knew where one could be viewed.
Finally, a pilot at the Santa Rosa Airshow told me, “I think there’s a Curtiss Jenny at the Shelleville Airport in Sonoma. At home, I googled Shelleville Airport and it didn’t exist. Further investigation later proved that it was renamed, The Sonoma Valley Airport.
I drove there and went to a hangar titled, “Vintage Aircraft Co.” and asked if they had a Curtiss Jenny. They said, “No, but Frank in a hangar nearby does.”
Frank was not around and I asked for his phone number. The aircraft co. wouldn’t give me his number, but took mine. I felt quite defeated and went home.
The next month, I got a phone call early in the morning.
“Frank Schelling here. I heard you wanted a ride in a Curtiss Jenny and you were writing a book.”
I said, “Yes, that would be wonderful.” (I never anticipated being invited for a ride!)
Frank said, “I’m going up very soon if you want to go.”
I said, “I live in Healdsburg and it takes me an hour to get there, how about next weekend?’
Frank said, “How about next year? I only go up once a year.”
I said, “I’ll be there!”
I quickly got dressed, threw my camera in my truck and broke the speed limit! I was quivering the entire way wondering what it would be like flying in an open cockpit biplane!
The Curtiss Jenny is a very long winged plane (44 feet) and I got there just when two men were pulling it slowly by the handholds out of the hangar toward the runway.
There were several guys there and they all treated me like a celebrity.(I wasn’t even a real author yet!)
Frank handed me a leather helmet, just getting into the biplane was an adventure. I had to be helped on a wooden box to get into the back cockpit. (read about the “Jenny dance” on page one of She Flew Bombers). The propeller was hand propped and away we went.
This World War One biplane was totally pristine, because Frank polished, painted, and maintained it constantly.
Frank was not going to be the pilot apparently he did not have enough ratings to take people up. Robin Reid was the pilot and he flew a commercial 747 everyday!
The sound of the 1918 Jenny made a clickety-clack very loud noise! I wrote later in my book how it sounded like three old tractors!
It was a very dreamy ride and I loved the wind in my face flying in the open cockpit above the patchwork squares of Sonoma Valley. Upon landing a “tail dragger” stops it in dirt and there are no brakes.
I found out later that I was a very lucky gal. There are only ten Curtiss Jenny’s presently airborne. Frank only went up once a year and for a little while because of the fuel shortage.
This was my first hands-on adventure and I will never forget it. I have been in many types of airplanes since, but the Jenny is my favorite.
The Curtiss Jenny I flew in is on the cover of my book, She Flew Bombers.
Flying in the 1918 open cockpit Curtiss Jenny
Sept. 17, 2015
Wings Over Wine Country Air Show in Santa Rosa
The 2015 Wings Over Wine Country Air Show, in Santa Rosa was fantastic!
There were over 20,000 people attending.
The Canadian Snowbirds were the featured performers. I loved when they made a giant smoke trail heart in the sky.
I got to watch the show and sold many of my books: She Flew Bombers, She Built Ships and She Was An American Spy.
Aug. 15, 2015
A Sea of Rosie’s Breaking the Record!
History was just made at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, CA. on August 15.
• 1084 women of all ages broke the record and brought it to where it belongs!
• 776 women dressed up as Rosie the Riveter last year in Ypsilanti, Michigan setting the Guinness World record.
Author, Jeane Slone was there in her polka-dot bandana autographing her book, She Built Ships During WW II. After the Rosie’s were counted from infant to “originals” the number was announced and the sea of Rosie’s exploded into applause.
WE CAN DO IT!
WE DID IT!
