"That's how you run a book launch" was the reaction of MOTAT executive director Jeff Morris after the Phil Lamason biography launch in Auckland.
In the second launch in a week for I Would Not Step Back . . ., Auckland's Museum of Transport, Aviation and Technology provided a setting which benefited the story of Dannevirke's Squadron Leader Phil Lamason.
The spectacular launch was held alongside the only World War II Lancaster bomber in New Zealand, which has pride of place in MOTAT's Aviation Hall.
Guests included a World War II bomber command veteran, current personnel from the RNZAF and RAF, members of the New Zealand Bomber Command Association (NZBCA) and the Lamason family and friends.
As at the Dannevirke launch days earlier, the special guest was Ailsa Cullen, widow of Malcolm Cullen, the only other New Zealand airman imprisoned with Phil Lamason in Buchenwald in 1944.
Bill Fryer, an avid Phil Lamason war-story follower and creator of the Phil Lamason Wikipedia page, made a special trip from Darwin to be part of the day.