High Adventure

by James Norman Hall

“I saw the German. He was about four hundred meters below me. He couldn’t have seen me, I think, because he kept straight on. I dove, but I didn’t open fire until I could have a nearer view of his black crosses. I wanted to be sure.”

War in the sky for the first time in history! The first military Air Force, the French Lafayette Escadrille, accepts Americans to train and serve as pilots prior to America’s entry into World War One.

James Norman Hall, one of these young men, describes his frightening experiences flying over enemy lines, and his soul searching when commanded to kill. He recounts his training in a French flight school on wooden bi-planes, his warm friendships with other trainees and crash landing in German territory.

After this period in his life, Hall eventually settled in Tahiti, married, raised a family and become reacquainted with an old friend and writer, Charles Nordhoff. Together they wrote the famous novel “Mutiny on the Bounty” and other books, many of which became major motion pictures.

Read by Andre Devin

Andre Devin has appeared in numerous independent films and stage productions in Southern California, from Shakespeare Orange County to Hollywood’s famous Fringe Festival. His performances as Joey in “The Indian Wants the Bronx” by Israel Horovitz and as Sal in Jim Geoghan’s “Tom and Jerry” were enthusiastically reviewed, as well as his moving performance as A Young Man in in William Saroyan’s “Hello Out There.” He was featured in the world premier of “If All the Sky Were Paper” by Andrew Carroll, at the Waltmar Theatre. Andre is an Irene Ryan award finalist and is a graduate of the Theatre Department of Chapman University.