Sahara Sands - A Memoir

The coming of age process can be an interesting, daring, scary, and wonderful experience. It can be enriched by exposure to things never seen, never done or never even imagined. Parents, high school, college and then what? This Memoir is the 'then what'.

‘Sahara Sands’ takes place during 1958 to 1962 – a brief four-year period in which the author transitioned from a naive college kid to a proven self-dependent adventurer. The story begins with his first serious job as a photo analyst on the Polaris Missile testing in Washington D.C. and moves rapidly on to aerial geophysical survey work in North Africa and an oceanography survey in the Persian Gulf. Those relatively peaceful years contrast sharply with the Moslem chaos and tragedies of the same areas today. The observations and experiences are related throughout the author's travels including a few brief love affairs, and what may be the only practical history of how aerial surveys were conducted prior to satellite and digital technology. The Los Angeles company, Fairchild Aerial Surveys and other aerial pioneers, essentially first mapped the world. Please join the author in those times and adventures.