African aid airlifts topic of Sarver man's book
“Far Away in the Sky: A Memoir of the Biafran Airlift” by David Koren of Sarver is a work of creative nonfiction about the Biafran Airlift in the 1960s.
In the book, Koren relates tales of his service with the airlifts, when old planes and daring flight crews delivered thousands of tons of food and medicine to victims of the Nigeria-Biafra War.
Koren grew up in Baldwin near Pittsburgh. After careers in teaching, rehabilitation counseling and laser physics, he retired to Butler County in 1995.
“I had served in the Peace Corps in 1964, '65 and '66, and later on when the war in Biafra started, since that was where I had served, I was recruited by UNICEF to go back and help expedite the unloading of the planes,” Koren said.
“Generally I flew in with the first plane, helped unload it, then helped unload the (six or seven) others and fly out with the last one of the night.”
Koren did that for about six months.
While there, he performed various other jobs, too, such as helping with mechanical work as seen in the photograph on the cover of the book.
Koren wrote “Far Away in the Sky” from audio recordings he had made during his time helping with the airlifts.
“I tried to be as accurate as possible,” Koren said. “I took all the documentation from random tapes, but instead of just transcribing them, I carefully looked at all of them and when something in tape one related to tape two, I saw where those were connected and I connected them.”
Koren said he cross-checked facts every way possible.
“I would remember that there was a full moon a night we were doing something, and I accessed astronomical charts and I made sure there actually was a full moon that night,” he noted.In a couple places in the book, Koren would indicate that an event did not actually happen by saying “imagine if ...”“Since it's a memoir, I get to reflect on meanings of things,” he said. I give my opinion or feelings.”The 332-page paperback is available for $17.99. The publication also is available in digital format.For more information, visit www.farawayinthesky.com.
