Military historian a rising star in publishing world.

Byline: The Register-Guard

You might say 1990 University of Oregon graduate John Bruning inherited a love of heroic military figures.

"My father lived on the Southern California coast during World War II," Bruning recalled.

"One day when he was 8, a Marine fighter pilot crash-landed a Corsair on the beach where my dad was building sand castles. This pilot crawls out of the plane and drawls, 'You got a phone in that there house?' My dad became an aviation fanatic on the spot, and I grew up arguing with him over arcane details of Japanese aircraft."

That upbringing prompted Bruning to become a history major. His first job out of UO was as aviation historian for Dynamics Inc., producer of such flight simulation computer games as "Red Baron II."

Sixteen years later, he is a rising star in the publishing world. He just got a $360,000 advance from Simon and Schuster for his next book, a ghost-writing project with Medal of Honor nominee Staff Sgt. David Bellavia.

Bruning's editor will be Bruce Noble, who edited Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's new memoir and former White House anti-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke's best-selling "Against All Enemies."

Bruning decided to make the leap from video game-vetter to serious military historian after receiving critical praise for his 1997 book, "Jungle Ace," based on his UO thesis about Eugene World War II fighter pilot Col. Gerald Johnson, killed in combat in the Pacific.

As soon as he began hearing details of the Oregon Second Battalion of the 162nd Infantry's experiences in Iraq - in part from a soldier engaged to his daughter's teacher - Bruning recognized another largely untold tale. He asked Oregon National Guard officials to arrange a meeting with battalion leaders.

"Once I got to know a half-dozen guys, I had a bond with them," he said - a bond fortified when he accompanied them on a New Orleans deployment after Hurricane Katrina. He won the kind of trust that led a nails-for-breakfast soldier such as Springfield's Sgt. Al Ezelle to recount his emotional farewell to his 13-year-old son as he left for war.

"The Devil's Sandbox" opened still more doors, Bruning said, convincing Bellavia, a New Yorker, to meet with and select him as a co-author of his forthcoming autobiography.

"David performed the single most intense act of courage I've ever come across as a historian, saving his platoon after they were trapped by insurgents in a house in Fallujah," Bruning said. "And I didn't want to stop writing about (noncom- missioned officers) because they really are the tip of the spear in the war on terror."

- Karen McCowan