David Westheimer

David Westheimer, was an American novelist best known for writing the 1964 novel Von Ryan's Express, which was adapted into a 1965 film starring Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard. Botn in Houston, Texas in 1917, Westheimer, a Rice University graduate, worked as an assistant editor for the Houston Post from 1939 to 1946, excluding the time he spent in United States Army Air Forces during World War II. As a navigator in a B-24 he was shot down over Italy on December 11, 1942 and spent time as a prisoner of war until 1945.