219 ratings | 1 review | avg rating:4.97

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver’s Followers (36)

Thomas’s Bookshelves

to-read (0)
currently-reading (0)
read (219)

Thomas’s Friends

Thomas hasn't connected with his friends on Goodreads, yet.

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

Goodreads Author

Born

in Houston TX

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs, History, Entertainment

Influences

As both a factual and fiction writer, I have been fortunate to have ma ...more

Member Since

December 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/tmcleaver

edit data

Most of my non-fiction writing is in the field of aviation, primarily the history of people, units and events, though I am also interested in technological developments and their influence on events.

I first ran across "serious" aviation writing when I was 10 and found William Green's "All The World's Aircraft, 1954" - the first book I read that seriously dealt with aircraft development beyond picture books. Over the years I read many books by Bill (as I came eventually to know him), and 25 years later he was the first editor to professionally publish an article by me about an aviation topic (a feature about people in California who restored, owned and operated antique airplanes). Not only did he publish the article, he used my photograph f Most of my non-fiction writing is in the field of aviation, primarily the history of people, units and events, though I am also interested in technological developments and their influence on events.

I first ran across "serious" aviation writing when I was 10 and found William Green's "All The World's Aircraft, 1954" - the first book I read that seriously dealt with aircraft development beyond picture books. Over the years I read many books by Bill (as I came eventually to know him), and 25 years later he was the first editor to professionally publish an article by me about an aviation topic (a feature about people in California who restored, owned and operated antique airplanes). Not only did he publish the article, he used my photograph for the cover of that issue of Air Enthusiast Quarterly! In the years that followed, Bill became a friend through the mail, a source of valuable insight about writing, and an enthusiastic supporter of my efforts. I've had a lot of success that way with fellow authors.

My interest in the field of aviation must be genetic. My mother's favorite tale about me was that my first word, spoken around age 1, was "o-pane!" when we were in a park in Denver, and I pointed up at a P-38 as it flew overhead.

My father was involved in aviation in the 1930s, and knew most of the Major Names of the era, like Jimmy Doolittle, Roscoe Turner, and even Ernst Udet. (As an aside, I met General Doolittle myself in 1976. Upon hearing my name, he looked me up and down, then shook his head and said "Nope, too young and too tall." Taken aback for a moment, I realized he was thinking of my father, also a Tom Cleaver. Once I identified myself, he told me a story about my father I had never heard before. I later discovered he had near-perfect recall of names and events.) I grew up looking at my father's photo albums of the old airplanes he had been around, which is probably why I most enjoy airplanes from those years.

In addition to writing about airplanes, I take pictures of them in flight. As a result of both activities, I have flown in everything from a Curtiss Jenny to an Air Force F-4E Phantom (definitely the best rollercoaster ride ever), and have additionally been up in World War II airplanes - the P-51 Mustang, P-40 Warhawk, SBD Dauntless, B-25 Mitchell, and many many many times in a T-6. As a pilot myself, I have about 200 hours in a Stearman biplane trainer as a member of a club back in the 1970s. I am certain my personal knowledge of flying as a pilot has helped me put a reader "in the cockpit" in my writing.

While I have advanced college and university degrees, I consider myself an autodidact, and I see the involvement with airplanes as my key to the world of self-education, as I would ask myself "what was that airplane used for?" which led to such questions as "how did that war happen?" I was also fortunate to grow up in a home with lots of books and a father who enjoyed history; between that and forays to the Denver Public Library (a Saturday spent in the stacks at the Main Library was a day in heaven), my education was very eclectic in subject matter.

My "film school" education came on Saturday afternoons spent at the old Park Theater on South Gaylord Street in Denver, where I went every Saturday from age 7 to age 15 when the theater closed, and watched everything that played on-screen. Somewhere along there, I learned the meaning of "good movie." ...more

0 posts
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver's Blog

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver hasn't written any blog posts yet.

Combine Editions
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver’s books

Average rating: 4.1 · 2,033 ratings · 232 reviews · 25 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Frozen Chosen: The 1st Marine Division and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir 4.11 avg rating — 289 ratings — published 2016 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	MiG Alley: The US Air Force in Korea, 1950–53 by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver (Goodreads Author), Walter J. Boyne (Foreword) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 286 ratings — published 2019 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pacific Thunder: The US Navy's Central Pacific Campaign, August 1943–October 1944 4.20 avg rating — 265 ratings — published 2017 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club: Naval Aviation in the Vietnam War 4.07 avg rating — 196 ratings — published 2021 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter Command against the Luftwaffe, 1942–45 by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver (Goodreads Author), Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson (Foreword) 4.25 avg rating — 121 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tidal Wave: From Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver (Goodreads Author), USN (Ret), Rear Admiral Doniphan P. Shelton (Foreword) 4.07 avg rating — 126 ratings — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Will Run Wild: The Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway 4.09 avg rating — 104 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Holding the Line: The Naval Air Campaign In Korea 3.94 avg rating — 86 ratings — published 2019 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Going Downtown: The US Air Force over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, 1961–75 4.22 avg rating — 76 ratings — published 2022 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Under the Southern Cross: The South Pacific Air Campaign Against Rabaul 4.09 avg rating — 74 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver…

Quotes by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver (?)

“The US Marine Corps Historical Division”
― Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, The Frozen Chosen: The 1st Marine Division and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

0 likes

“Argentina”
― Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter Command against the Luftwaffe, 1942–45

0 likes

“In the whole three years of the war, the only action that is remembered today as being “great” was the breakout of the 1st Marine Division from the Chosin Reservoir, an event that has passed into legend, compared in history with the retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks under Xenophon from Persia two and a half thousand years earlier.”
― Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, The Frozen Chosen: The 1st Marine Division and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

0 likes

See all Thomas McKelvey Cleaver's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librari...: Goodreads Author profiles needing merging BY GR STAFF pt. 26	973	1245	Apr 15, 2019 02:31PM
Book Riot's Read ...: Read Harder Challenge Plans	106	1483	Sep 21, 2022 08:10AM
The History Book ...: VIETNAM WAR	320	872	Feb 20, 2025 01:23PM
THE WORLD WAR TWO...: 2025 - October - WW2 Air Warfare	85	92	Dec 04, 2025 07:38AM