Casey and the
Flying Fortress—
The True Story of a
World War II Bomber Pilot
and the Crew
Mark Farina

 Tuesday, May 8, 2018
5:30 - 8:30 pm
The Lounge at Iwan Ries
19 South Wabash Ave


Cocktails at 5:30, with the presentation at 6:00 for about thirty minutes, followed by discussion and general cocktail talk.
Reservations are required.
 
Mark Farina’s father-in-law, Casey Paulinski, was a bomber pilot during World War II.  The many questions his surviving family members had about his father-in-law’s involvement in the war prompted Farina in researching that topic and eventually telling the story of Casey & the Flying Fortress.

This book tells the story of a young man from Chicago who became a co-pilot of a bomber in Europe during World War II—from training, to the assembly of his B-17 crew, the men’s struggles after becoming prisoners of war and the discovery some 60 years later of details his surviving family and fellow crew members never knew.

“Military history and in particular World War II has offered a never ending fascination for history buffs and anyone who had a member of their family involved in that period,” Farina points out. “In a broader sense, learning to have an understanding and compassion for how the war had far reaching after effects on family members to this day.”
Mark Farina is a native Chicagoan, has worked as a sportscaster, sportswriter, and government public relations specialist in a career that has spanned forty years. He is a respected sports public-address announcer, having started as a fifteen-year-old sophomore (Steinmetz High School in 1975) and announcing at high school championships for baseball, football, basketball, wrestling, soccer, ice hockey, and girls rugby.

He has been a PA announcer for The Chicago State University’s Cougars, Chicago Public League, the Noble Athletic Conference and multiple High Schools in the Suburbs of Chicago. Mark attended Illinois State University as a communications major, Columbia College Chicago as a radio-TV major, and DePaul University. He has an active member of Kiwanis International for over 25 years. He has been happily married to Diane Paulinski Farina since 1993, and they have a teenage son, Louis.


About the Cigar Society of Chicago

ONE OF THE OLDEST AND greatest traditions of the city clubs of Chicago is the discussion of intellectual, social, legal, artistic, historical, scientific, musical, theatrical, and philosophical issues in the company of educated, bright, and appropriately provocative individuals, all under the beneficent influence of substantial amounts of tobacco and spirits.  The Cigar Society of Chicago embraces this tradition and extends it with its Informal Smokers, University Series lectures, and Cigar Society Dinners, in which cigars, and from time to time pipes and cigarettes, appear as an important component of our version of the classical symposium.  To be included in the Cigar Society's mailing list, write to the secretary at curtis.tuckey@logicophilosophicus.org.