History of SNAFU

The Story of how SNAFU came about starts with me being five years old, watching The Memphis Belle for the first time. For reasons that I'll never know or understand, I became obsessed with the B-17 and the 8th Air Force, both as a child and now as an adult. 
When I was in my first year of college, I began writing a story called "Dying Skies" which was a story about a group of Airmen in the 92nd Bombardment Group in World War II. I poured my heart and soul into the story and was aiming to get it published. To make sure my story was accurate, I gave it to several 8th Air Force veterans and asked them to read it and critique it for its accuracy and tone. Their response crushed me. I found out that I didn't know nearly enough about the 8th Air Force and the B-17 to write a story about it. So, I completely scrapped the story and didn't write for five years and spent that time reading every book I could read on the 8th Air Force and the B-17. I also began interviewing and talking with several 8th Air Force veterans and gathered as much information as possible. 
Also during this time, I became a better writer through my education and started creating new characters, giving them backgrounds, creating maps, and doing all the background work so when the time came for me to put words to a page, I would be ready. 
In 2018, I began writing again, and I changed the name of the story to SNAFU, and before I knew it the entire first "book" was written. This time, the accuracy and tone were much more realistic and the characters seemed to be coming alive more and more with each chapter I wrote. 
In 2019, when I was working in Pittsburgh as a driver for a medical company, I became an avid Tru-Crime Podcast listener. I fell in love with the style of dramatic podcasting and thought, "I wish there was a war Podcast like these Tru-Crime Podcasts." and that's when it hit me. However, I let myself come up with excuses as to why I couldn't do it. I kept making excuses until finally in late 2020, I finally gave in, which leads me to today. Now, I'm doing something I never thought I'd ever had the guts to do. I'm converting the story from a written form to a spoken one and it's been quite the challenge so far, but already it's been worth it. 
I hope you enjoy the podcast, and I hope it gives you an appreciation for what the boys of the 8th Air Force went through to help us win the deadliest war ever fought in human history.  -S. Aaron Walters