Dave Eagleston

Join us on Wednesday October 27, at 7:00 PM in welcoming Tulsa’s own singer, helicopter pilot, Vietnam Vet, and author Dave Eagleston for in in-person program at Magic City Books. Dave will present on his books, A Private Heaven and West of Alva.

A Private Heaven is an adventure-filled drama based on a true story. Like Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It, this is the story of two brothers as opposite as Cain and Abel. When Dave, the impulsive, younger brother, completes his tour of duty in Vietnam, he moves his young family to Newfoundland, where he embarks on a challenging, often dangerous career as a helicopter pilot. Dave’s older brother back in Tulsa is a six-foot-four, muscle-bound ex-convict with Hollywood good looks, a charming smile, and a serious penchant for violence.

West of Alva is Dave’s historical novel/love story set in rural Oklahoma in the 60s. It is the story of a city boy that spends the summer working on a farm and learns hard lessons about farming, loneliness, and a Nazi prison camp called Camp Alva that held 5,000 hardcore Nazi prisoners in Oklahoma during World War II.

Both books have strong Tulsa connections, and Dave’s exciting presentations are always entertaining and end with a patriotic song.

Dave Eagleston grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and graduated from Will Rogers High School and Oklahoma State University. He worked for a few years as a cameraman and vocalist at KTUL-TV in Tulsa before joining the Army. After a tour as a combat helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Dave traveled the world as a commercial pilot and aviation advisor. He has had the privilege of living in such exciting locations as Burma, Russia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, three provinces in Canada, as well as several beautiful cities in the United States. He has flown prime ministers, premiers, ambassadors, the US secretary of state, firefighters, roughnecks, game wardens, poachers, prisoners, movie stars, and a several thousand ordinary people. As a combat pilot, he was awarded two Purple Hearts, twenty-two Air Medals, and the Silver Star. As a commercial helicopter pilot, he received the Helicopter Association International (HAI) Safe Pilot Award. Dave lives in McKinney, Texas, with his wife Janie.