Author and Iraq Vet to Join Albion Class of 2010

"Jack and Larry sent him a copy of the proofs with a note saying, 'Dear Bob: We read your books, now you read ours,'" says junior Andy Layton, explaining how his book "Eagle's Wings" gained the endorsements from former senators Bob Dole and Daniel Inouye which appear on its back cover.

Layton's account of two Battle Creek natives who (along with Dole) found themselves in the same Army hospital in 1945 made him, at age 18, the author of two books on military history. In addition, the story of the late Jack Curtis and Larry Jenkins (both Albion alumni) influenced Layton's decision to transfer to Albion this past fall.

As a preteen, Layton began collecting autographs, especially focusing on war aces – pilots who had shot down five enemy fighters in combat. The army has fewer recognized military aces than five-star generals, and a disproportionate number of those aces have been from Michigan.

Through his correspondence and volunteer work with the Battle Creek Veterans Affairs Medical Facility, Layton found himself gathering war stories along with autographs. Still, the idea of putting this knowledge on paper didn't occur to him until a trip to Michigan's Own Military and Space Museum in Frankenmuth. During a tour of the museum, Layton noted that he had had personal contact with a number of the featured servicemen. "The docent finally said, 'you know these guys [in our exhibits] better than I do; you need to write your information down before it's lost,'" Layton recalls.

To his surprise, the 15-year-old Layton discovered that, among the thousands of books on World War II military history, there interest in his, a collection of oral histories of Michigan war aces from WWI through the Korean War. "I was doing interviews for the Library of Congress oral history project, and I just turned the notes into a book," he says of "Wolverines in the Sky," published when he was just 16. "I also found out that there are actually dozens of publishers looking for books to print on demand. It really wasn't that hard to get mine into print."

With the success of "Wolverines," Layton turned to his retelling of the exploits of Curtis and Jenkins, childhood friends who had found each other in an Army hospital after being liberated from different POW camps in Austria. The two struck up a friendship with Layton. Curtis, a Distinguished Alumnus of Albion, and Jenkins attended Albion College on the G.I. bill and were very proud of their alma mater. "When I first met them, they said, 'You gotta go to Albion College; if you ever need a reference, we'll give you one,'" Layton recalls. "They encouraged me to look at Albion, and it has been a great fit."

The son of an Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant, Layton enlisted with the Air National Guard when he completed high school (Layton was home schooled). After two years serving in Battle Creek while attending Kellogg Community College, he deployed for seven months in 2009 to Tikrit, Iraq, where he gained new insights about war history. "One thing that really struck me was the bond you have with people who go through those experiences with you," he reflects. "Also, the responsibility to tell your stories for the people who didn't make it back. If you talk to any of the people in my books, I think they'd say that's one reason these stories are important."

Along with being a national recipient of the 2005 Jesse Brown Memorial youth Scholarship from the Disabled American Veterans association and the 2006 VA Volunteer of the Year, Layton was awarded and Air Force Achievement Medial and an Army Achievement Medal for coordinating the response to an aircraft fire. "The Army doesn't give out many awards to members of the Air Force, so I really appreciate that award," he says.

Layton is the Michigan 2009 Airman of the Year, an honor that puts him in contention for one the Air Force's 12 Outstanding Airmen awards to be announced in the spring of 2010. Last but not least, Layton is slated to receive the 2010 Harriet Quimby award from the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame for "outstanding contributions to the history of aviation through art or literature," according to the Hall's Web site.

Currently at Albion on the G.I. bill, Layton is studying political science with an international relations focus at Albion, hoping that this knowledge will help him eventually gain a commission from the Air National Guard. He has no current plans to write more books, but is also not ruling it out. "I never set out to be a writer, but I've written two books," he says. "If I find something else to write about, I know I can do it."