the jersey brothers by sally mott freeman

Now it is up to Bill and Benny to find and rescue him.īased on ten years of research drawn from archives around the world, interviews with fellow shipmates and POWs, and primary sources including diaries, unpublished memoirs, and letters half-forgotten in basements, The Jersey Brothers is a remarkable story of agony and triumph-from the home front to Roosevelt’s White House, and Pearl Harbor to Midway and Bataan. But this protection plan backfires when Barton is sent to the Philippines and listed as missing-in-action after a Japanese attack. Barton, the youngest and least distinguished of the three, is shuffled off to the Navy Supply Corps because his mother wants him out of harm’s way.

Benny is the gunnery and anti-aircraft officer on the USS Enterprise, one of the only carriers to escape Pearl Harbor and by the end of 1942 the last one left in the Pacific to defend against the Japanese. Bill is picked by Roosevelt to run his first Map Room in Washington. They are three brothers, all Navy men, who end up coincidentally and extraordinarily at the epicenter of three of the war’s most crucial moments. The book is not only an excellent story, but also a fine tribute to the bond of brothers at war.The extraordinary, real-life adventure of three brothers at the center of the most dramatic turning points of World War II and their mad race to change history-and save one of their own. The letters from her grandmother (Bill, Benny, and Barton’s mother) capture the anguish and anger of a mother trying to find out the fate of her beloved son. As a result, she has a wealth of primary sources (her grandmother’s letters, letters between Bill, and Benny, and other documents) to draw from for the story. Each of the brother’s have different experiences and yet Freeman connects them all in the search for Barton.įortunate for her and the reader, Freeman is the daughter of Bill. It is well-cited, but reads like a popular history.ĭespite the complex stories of the three brothers, she expertly intertwines them into an engaging, seamless story. Although she has a background in writing (speech writing and public relations), it is still an excellent first work.įreeman writes in a hybrid style of history. It is surprising because it is so well written and researched.

It surprised me to learn that The Jersey Brothers was Freeman’s first book. Sally Mott Freeman’s The Jersey Brothers: A Missing Naval Officer in the Pacific and His Family’s Quest to Bring Him Home is a gripping tale of the bond between three brothers and how two of them do everything they possibly can to rescue the other one.

The jersey brothers by sally mott freeman