Book Review: "RESOLVE"

[brad kaste]

Hi All,
Most of us are quite familiar with the Bataan Death March after the collapse of Corregidor in the Philippines. I wasn't aware of the US servicemen who decided to 'slip away' beforehand instead of joining many American and Filipino troops that walked to their doom. This is the story of Clay Connor Jr.,....a twenty-three year-old Army Air Force communications officer who had never even camped before,......becoming a guerrilla fighter of exceptional means. Never surrendering to the Japanese,....he led a small group of Americans, Filipinos, and Negritos (indigenous natives to the Philippines) in spying,...giving intelligence updates to the allies,...and creating general sabotage against the enemy.
Besides battling the overwhelming Japanese forces,....he had to endure malaria, heat, jungle rot, snakes, and disease giving mosquitoes. Most of all,...he had to overcome his own self-doubts and despair,....wondering if they'd ever get rescued. Conner would survive and fight for almost three long years. But,...if it's wasn't for the befriending by local villagers,....and most importantly,...the Negritos,...he wouldn't have made it. He found too one of the most vexing issues were the Huks,...a Filipino group of communist leanings that could never be totally trusted,
I think the author, Bob Welch,...did a pretty good job in tying Conner's personal war journal,...other writings and interviews,...into a well paced book on what it was like to be on the run from the Japanese. The enemy had put a BIG price on his head,....dead or alive. I give the book *** stars out of four.


.......Now,....a few other write-ups posted below by persons who read the book (from Amazon.com)........


Combat stories have always fascinated me because they invariably involve danger and excitement, but the story of Clay Conner Jr. goes far beyond simply being an exciting war story. Rather than suffer the fate of the majority of the American forces at Bataan who surrendered to the overwhelming Japanese forces, he chose to flee into the jungle. Author Bob Welch does an outstanding job telling the story of what happened over the next three years of Connor's life - of engaging in guerilla warfare while being relentlessly pursued by a brutal enemy, of suffering through disease and deprivation, of brave Filipino civilians risking their lives to help him, of his success uniting jungle pygmy tribes into an alliance against the Japanese, of courage and betrayal, and all of this with the added subtext of a mother's relentless quest to discover the fate of her only son. If you like stories of survival, determination, friendship, duty, hope, and the triumph of the human spirit, you need to read this book!


What a great read about a part of WWII that I have never heard of. So many sacrificed for our freedom. This was truly the Greatest Generation. This book is an engaging and exciting read about an otherwise unknown hero who refused to surrender but instead had the guts to keep fighting the Japanese all throughout the length of the war. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone who is interested in WWII history!

[CWOJackson]

Thanks for the review and recommendation; ordered.

Here are two others you may enjoy:

- Cruiser: The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew by Mike Carlton http://www.amazon.com/Cruiser-Life-Loss-Perth-ebook/dp/B004T6F04M

- A Very Rude Awakening: The Night The Japanese Midget Subs Came To Sydney Harbour by Peter Grose http://www.amazon.com/Very-Rude-Awakening-Japanese-Midget/dp/1741752191/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1368461887&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=a+very+rude+awakening

"Cruiser" is an excellent encapsulation of the origins and WWII history of the Australian Navy along with the compelling story of a particular ship and it's crew. I found both books intriguing in regards to the pre-war/war-time relationship between Australia and England. Both offer in-depth insights into that relationship that I hadn't seen addressed in the U.S. very well.

[Jagdflieger]

Thanks for the heads up Brad. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Filipinos and their island nation.

I served four times in the P.I., both up north on Luzon and down south where the current trouble is. Being an amateur historian, I took advantage of spare time to visit and see the various sites from the Spanish period as well as WW II.

Here are a few shots of Corregedor Island. The 12" Rifle was the star of one of the most widely published IJA propaganda pictures.

[SSI01]

Jagdflieger - I suppose that 12" rifle is either Battery Smith or Battery Hearn on the Rock. That place has always had a special place in my heart. My dad was in the Coast Artillery Corps prior to WWII. A few months before Pearl Harbor the Army conducted a sweep of the CAC units INCONUS and chose those men they decided they could use to beef up the CAC units in the PI. Dad knew some of the guys sent over there, who were mostly longer-service men. After Pearl, Dad and his friends used to cluster by the radio in the day room of the barracks and listen to the latest news on events in the PI; those who were chosen from the unit to go to the PI as reinforcements were never far out of their thoughts. But for the luck of the draw, Dad may have gone and I wouldn't be here right now.

In the prewar US Army in the PI, the Philippine Scouts were known to be highly professional units despite their inferior equipment. Some of their American officers thought them to be superior to American soldiers in many ways. They certainly did not lack in courage or devotion to their cause. Let it never be said they did not assist Americans who were in trouble after the surrender, or risk their lives to aid these fugitives, or fliers shot down over the PI during the war. They paid a heavy price for keeping their faith in America. In September 1995, shortly after I got to Pearl Harbor from Chicago, they shut down our office at the Navy base to help the Secret Service in providing security to the 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of WWII in the Pacific. During the big parade in downtown Honolulu, I was stationed immediately to one side of the grandstand holding the President and other foreign heads of state. I was priviliged to be sharing that spot with a man who could not have been more than 10 or 12 years old during the Philippine Occupation by the Japanese. He fought in the Philippine Resistance as a message runner and a scout. He had many entertaining stories to tell about life in the PI under the Japanese and the treatment by them of the Philippine people - and of his unit's and service's exploits. They were excellent allies.