Lieutenant Packard Cummings returned to his home, the town's most honored native son, and one of the air forces most heroic fliers, after twenty two months of brilliant, deadly combat overseas. "Packy" Cummings was an ace fighter pilot, who was itching to fight the Japanese, but instead was assigned as a reconnaissance pilot - one of the riskiest, highest impact jobs in the war. Flying camera equipped, unarmed and often unescorted aircraft - in this case a stripped down P38 - deep into enemy territory.