Part II: Growth, May 12, 1942-June 18, 1959 Summary

World War II finds Max Collins enlisting in the Army, Lieutenant Walter Bowman training pilots in Florida, and Buell Jenkins working as an airplane mechanic at Bowman's training facility. In Poland, Irwin Mann has been transported to the Warsaw Ghetto, where he organizes a resistance group, teaches himself and others how to operate the weapons confiscated from Nazi troops. When the resistance ultimately fails, Mann escapes through the sewers. Max Collins finds himself the sole survivor of a plane crash in enemy territory but manages to escape capture by his sharpshooting ability, killing the German commander of a unit searching for him.

As the war ends, American troops return home, including Lieutenant Bowman. During his time in Florida, he built a specialized bi-plane with Jenkins which Bowman's commander tells him to take home to St...