Joyce of the Secret Squadron

    Captain Midnight is the chief of the Secret Squadron, a secret military force consisting of the best aviators and agents. Their base is located on a small camouflaged island in the pacific. One day he is visited by a man who gives his name as Mr. X. He says a new experimental and highly secretive plane called the Flying Wing has gone missing on it's first test flight. Capt Midnight is being tasked with searching for the plane around it's last known location out in the pacific.

    Meanwhile on another island not too far away is the base for The Barracuda and his "swarm" of cutthroats. The Barracuda is a sadistic outlaw whose allegiance lies with the highest bidder which happens to be Japan. He is aware of the Flying Wing's disappearance because it was him who made it disappear. His men managed to capture the pilot but the plane went missing when one of his swarm was flying it back to their base. It's current whereabouts are unknown to him. The Barracuda has hired Carla Rotan, a beautiful spy, to make contact with the squadron and discover the planes whereabouts so the Barracuda can swoop in and steal it after it's discovery.

    While young Joyce Ryan and Chuck Ramsay, both members of the squadron, are out for a pleasure flight, Carla and her pilot Jack Carson make contact with the two. Carla claims to be out searching the pacific for her lost brother but is in need of supplies. Joyce and Chuck reluctantly take the two back to the secret base where Capt. Midnight gives them supplies then orders them to be escorted to the mainland.

    The next day just as the group of searchers finishes loading their plane the noise of the Barracuda and his swarm flying into the vicinity can be heard. Midnight, Joyce, Chuck, and Ichabod Mudd, a mechanic and code maker, jump in the sky ship and take off along with Carla and Carson, and several other Squadron planes. A fight ensues in the air with the squadron losing one plane and the Barracuda many.

    Once it is over the four head to their destination area and after night has fallen they find an island they believe the Flying Wing might have landed on.

    The next day Carla and Jack show up at the same island and Carla attempts to get on friendly terms with the group who remain suspicious of her. They also discover a schooner with rough sailors anchored by the island. They assume they're pearl fishers and decide to stay away and try to stay unknown to the sea men.

    The next several days focus on a new code being made as it's clear the Barracuda has gotten hold of the squadron's old codebook. A new code had been locked away at the squadron base for just such an incident but Ichabod must remember how he created the code and recreate it or else the group will be left on the island with no means of safe communication back to their base.

    While he does this Joyce and Chuck venture around the island a little bit and find the area of a very old crash landing. They discover a 1920's airplane that has been destroyed and turned into a makeshift home, presumably by the surviving pilot. As they head back to their camp to inform the Midnight of this they hear their plane starting up and upon reaching their camp they see the castaway pilot attempting to steal their plane. He crashes it and is pulled out of the cockpit unconscious by Midnight and Ichabod. In his pockets they find a pilots license for Bill Madison, a famous flyer who went missing during a 1927 flight.

    Upon regaining consciousness Bill is terrified and speaks of a Capt. Burley who is trying to kill him to gain possession of a bag of pearls, a gift Bill had received from the native people of the island.
Capt. Burley soon arrives with armed men demands Bill be handed over to him. As the group is out dealing with these sailors Bill slips away.

    He returns the next night and the squadron promises Bill they will protect him and get him home. The sailors show up again and the squadron barricades themselves in the plane which the sailors then surround and are just about to unload their ammunition into when Bill uses a special call to bring his native friends to his rescue.

    The next day Carla is visited by the Barracuda who is losing patience with her. She is then visited by a desperate Capt. Burley who asked for her partnership in getting the pearls. She agrees to do this after the Flying Wing is discovered but Burley doesn't trust her so he goes to the Barracuda with the offer instead. Like Carla, the Barracuda agrees with the intent of double crossing him and keeping the pearls. All these events are being observed by Bill, Joyce, and Chuck who have climbed up an overlooking rock formation.

    Borrowing Bill's gun Joyce runs down to the beach where the schooner is anchored. She lights a small fire in the jungle to bring the Capt. on land then holds a gun on him while discussing a deal. She'll get Bill to give him half the pearls in exchange for use of the schooner. With Bills help the group has deduced that the Flying Wing crash landed on a nearby island but with their plane damaged by Bill they have no means of getting there. The Capt. enthusiastically agrees to this once Joyce informs these men, who have been at sea for a year, that the world is at war and the Barracuda and Carla are working against the United States.

    The group plans to sail out under cover of darkness which is quickly approaching. Capt. Midnight radios for more squadron members to meet him at the nearby island and just as he finishes sending the message the Barracuda flies over, dropping a bomb on the recently evacuated plane and spitting machine gun fire at the fleeing men and woman.

    They trek through the jungle and come to the anchored lagoon. A boat comes to the shore to meet them and on it is Carla and Jack. They order the group to give up the bag of pearls and location of the Flying Wing while pointing a sub machine gun at them. 

    After refusing Carla pulls Joyce out of the group to be executed first. Joyce, preying on Carla's womanly vanity, asks to powder her nose first. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out Bill's gun which she shoots at Jack. 

    The sight of the gun sets everyone in motion: Jack begins shooting, Midnight tackles Jack, and Chuck tackles Joyce. Midnight manages to beat Jack unconscious while Carla is restrained by Ichabod and Bill. The schooner is boarded and heads to the nearby island.

    They reach it as dawn approaches and as they are dropping boat for land the Barracuda approaches from air in a full out attack. Midnight is able to carefully aim and fires at the ammunition on the plane causing it to explode in air. The Barracuda's swarm arrive just as the requested Squadron members show up and an air battle ensues while Capt. Midnight finds the crashed plane in the jungle and sets it on fire, destroying it and keeping it's secrets safe from enemy hands. The battle is, of course, won by the squadron and all can head back to the secret base and the USA.

- Carla is said to be in her thirties and also called young throughout the book. I found this extremely refreshing.

- The secrecy of the location of the Secret Squadrons headquarters is stated very clearly right at the beginning of the book but then Joyce and Chuck bring two strangers to it without a second thought.

- I had written down a note about how I wished Joyce was written as less of a stereotyped woman of the time period but then I realize Joyce was not written as a stereotyped woman, she is simply illustrated as one. 

    Through out the book Joyce is described as wearing pants yet she is illustrated as wearing a dress. Even in the scene where Joyce is worried she will be mistaken as a man from a distance and accidentally shot because of her pants, she is still drawn as wearing a dress. In almost all the images of her she is wide eyed with her mouth open in shock or her brows furrowed in worry. Worst of all is the illustration of Chuck helping her climb a rock while she is on her hands and knees looking weak and fragile without the help of a man. This is not how she was written at all so it's quite annoying.

- Speaking of illustrations Ichabod is not illustrated at all, even in pictures of scene he is in and when the rest of the group are pictured he is still not illustrated, why?

- The more I read the more it became clear that Chuck has no business being in the secret squadron. He doesn't believe Carla is a spy cause she's pretty and flirty, he doesn't believe Joyce found a part of an airplane in the jungle because he doesn't want her to be right, and when Joyce sees Bill for the first time he accuses her of seeing things. If he were in charge the whole squadron would have already been captured or dead.

- Bill states that he has seen Capt. Burley kill a ton of natives on the island but once Burley agrees to work with them the squadron decides that he's actually a good guy. They ignore that he's a murderer who's been trying to kill Bill over pearls. And no, the pearls didn't belong to Burley. They belong to the island natives who gave them as gifts to Bill.

- Chuck gets so excited when a sub machine gun bullet goes through his trouser leg but misses his flesh because he can "tell this story for the rest of his life". I thought that was pretty cute.

- Capt. Midnight sets the flying wing on fire to destroy it, ignoring the fact that that's going to cause a huge gasoline fueled fire in the jungle and kill wildlife and possibly native inhabitants.

    Overall this book is so good! I loved it the first time I read it and I loved it this time. There's no boring parts and it moves along really smoothly. It appears this was the only Whitman book written by this author, Russ Winterbotham, and that makes me quite sad. This was excellently written and I would have loved to read more.