Reluctant Hero

Author: Sonia Carlsen Fedak

ISBN 978-1-63868-178-6 (softcover);
978-1-63868-179-3 (hardcover)

328 pages

FROM THE AUTHOR
The Enterprise saga captured world-wide attention, and not since Charles Lindbergh’s first solo flight over the Atlantic had onlookers on either side of the Atlantic been so taken with a peacetime hero.

The Enterprise story was front page headlines worldwide for more than two weeks and resurfaced on every anniversary for years. The Danish American skipper shared front page headlines with Winston Churchill, President Harry S. Truman, the Korean War and a British ruler’s death. Some days Kurt Carlsen’s story knocked them all off the front page. It was a story that everyone from youngster to grandparent had a passion to follow. It was a good story. The sense of responsibility, the sense of duty, honor and integrity this captain of the Flying Enterprise had was inspiring. It’s what the world needed. These readers in every country pulled for the Flying Enterprise and her captain; they prayed for that ship and her master. They prayed for his wife, my sister and me. Ten thousand of those people sent us adoring letters of love, thanks and congratulations.

 What a joy it is for me to finally have the memorabilia of the amazing man my father was in one location where it is visible and easy to access for this generation and many generations. The memorabilia I unearthed is now displayed in a small Carlsen Museum in our home in Florida. The larger overflow is tucked away in the magnificent chests my father commissioned in the far east in his travels around the world as shipmaster.

We need more men like that captain. I very much wish that all of you know what he did, why he did it and what an important part of our history that event was to our family, our country, the world, and the United States Merchant Marine.