“Isn’t this a fine jambalaya—with Earl Long, the Times-Picayune, [Plaquemines Parish Boss&] Leander Perez, the Shreveport Times . . . the old regulars—this all put together in one pot ...

Christmas Eve, 1944, behind enemy lines near the Germany-Belgium border at an altitude of about 25,000 feet, 20-year-old Loyola New Orleans law student David MacHauer was manning two machine guns from ...