By DIANA LEE BROWN, MA MFT
FLY BY
A Daughter’s Journey from Tragedy to Tribute
Fly By is a story about the strength and resilience of the human spirit to heal after the ambiguous loss of a loved one.
Diana turned five years old around the time her father went missing in the Korean War. On December 31, 1952, First Lt. Frank Salazar never returned to his Kimpo Air Base after flying on a mission into North Korea, and his remains and RF-51D aircraft were never found. While her mother dealt with the loss by ignoring it and rarely speaking of him, the author struggled to feel connected to her father’s love, to keep his memory alive, and eventually to honor his life and sacrifice. She transformed this tragedy into a tribute to her father by also making the best of her own life – moving through the grief to the healthy, happy, and productive life her father would have wanted for her.
Author
Diana Lee Brown
Diana has personal experience as a military child, is the Gold Star daughter of an MIA USAF pilot and the spouse of a deployed soldier. From 2008-2013, she worked with active duty military members and their families providing counseling support services at military installations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her compassion and dedication to active duty service members, combat veterans and military families is ongoing.
The author has a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Diana is a certified Core Transformation Coach and Ennegram Coach-Teacher-Trainer. She has been a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for 29 years and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor for 30 years. As an associate faculty member, she developed the curricula and taught the addiction studies program at Lake Tahoe Community College.
MEDIA
FOX NEWS
http://video.foxnews.com August 02, 2018 By Pete Hegseth
video.foxandfriends.com August 04, 2018
ABC NEWS
“This Week” with Martha Raddatz, July 29, 2018
BBC NEWS
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-aisia-44843123
Interview May 2018 By Cindy Sui, BBC News Reporter in Seoul, Korea
NEVADA NEWS
KOLO-TV July 31, 2018 update, By Ed Pierce (original story May 2018)
(Las Vegas) Review-Journal.com, September 20, 2018, By Briana Erickson
Diana Brown has written an extraordinary book about living with ambiguous loss –a missing -in -action father plus a mother who was psychologically unavailable to her. She struggles to know them both and surprisingly, succeeds with her father. Diana Brown’s journey grips your attention and shows in vivid prose how resilience emerges in surprising ways.
… a gripping narrative of discovering how to live well despite unanswered questions. I could not put the book down. A must-read for professionals as well as family members.
– Dr. Pauline Boss, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota; author of Ambiguous Loss, (2000) and Loss Trauma and Resilience (2011)
Being a combat veteran myself, I can’t imagine what the family dealt with in the ensuing months, years and decades that followed. The author’s story shines a unique light on a surviving loved one’s journey influenced by her love for her father and his patriotism! Diana demonstrates her own remarkable sense of patriotism and dedication to the military family by revealing her vulnerable life story and the healing role the Nevada Air National Guard played almost 50 years later. This is a must-read for all military members and families who have lost a loved one in combat.