Philip Meynard Flammer had a long career in the Air Force as a pilot and, later, historian, most notably working in Saigon in1968-69 documenting the Vietnam War. The author of several books and articles on military history, he eventually joined the Brigham Young University history faculty and taught there for a number of years before his retirement and death. He influenced an entire generation of LDS thinkers and practitioners in the field of national security, especially through his writings on military ethics. Unfortunately, this legacy has largely been lost to our faith community.
The adaptor first made Professor Flammer’s acquaintance when they were both graduate students at Yale University. At BYU Phil also worked with Rogers as an assistant director of its Honors Program (1975—1976). Flammer told Rogers that his novel-length manuscript recounts a single night’s dream about the failed attempt of several Nazi soldiers at the end of World War II to evade detection and extermination by members of the invading Soviet army. The particulars of World War II and—-as in all wars—the both human and inhumane behavior of its combatants were another area of Flammer’s expertise.
Novel adapted into a Play