BlackFive

The following review is a special for BlackFive readers provided by Elise Cooper. You can read all of our book reviews and author interviews by clicking on the Books category link in the right side bar.

MacArthur’s Spies by Peter Eisner recounts how three individuals played a significant role in the resistance against the Japanese occupation in the Philippines during World War II. The book shows how heroes come from many backgrounds: A singer, soldier, and spymaster. As the greatest generation is dying off written accounts such as this is a reminder of how ordinary people can become extraordinary by putting themselves in danger to help others survive and achieve victory.

The emphasis of the book is on the American singer, Claire Phillips, who opened a nightclub in Manila catering to Japanese officials and officers. She and those who worked for her gathered information that was passed on to the allies. In addition she provided food, supplies, and medicine to many of the allied POWs and citizens interned in the camps. Given the code name “High Pockets,” she met with guerrilla fighters to inform them of Japanese military plans, and by all accounts gave credible intelligence reports.

Another contributor was US Army Corporal, John Boone, one of the first to start a guerrilla organization against the Japanese. He not only had to evade the Japanese who would kill him on the spot, but also homegrown Communist Filipinos, and turncoats. After the Japanese overran the forces in Bataan, they demanded the Americans surrender. Although the majority did, Boone was one of the few who disobeyed orders by refusing to surrender, and fled into the jungles where he aided in foiling the Japanese. Through sabotage and disruption he and his men helped to pave the way for General MacArthur’s return. Readers will enjoy how Eisner intertwines the resistance with the battles fought in and around the Philippines.

Charles “Chick” Parsons was called MacArthur’s spymaster. An American businessman who was in Manila during the Japanese advance, he convinced them he was a Panamanian diplomat. They never found out he actually was a US Navy intelligence officer, and allowed him to depart the Philippines. Having convinced MacArthur to have him return, in March 1943, he arrived back via submarine. He eluded detection by operating off the grid and became the chief aid in organizing and supplying the guerrillas including making sure the intelligence network was successful.

The book also discusses the faceless American heroes, those captured by the Japanese. Although much is known about the Nazi atrocities, the Japanese also had their share of brutality. Citizens in Manila would have to bow and show their subservience to the Japanese or risk being slapped, kicked, and beaten. One of the worst was the Bataan Death March where starving and thirsty American prisoners were forced to trek for miles in the wilting sun.

Eisner noted, “This march was a horror show of inhumanity. The Americans and Filipinos who fought with them were brutalized and slaughtered. When some stopped because of exhaustion they were bayoneted on the spot. Another example occurred just after the surrender where the Japanese mowed down the allied forces with rifle and machine gun fire. This continued throughout the war and came to a head when in August 1944 the Tokyo High Command issued a secret kill order. At the Palawan POW camp prisoners became slave laborers and were forced to build an airfield. In December under the guise of a supposed air raid the POWs were told to go into the trenches for shelter. Suddenly the Japanese guards dumped gallons of gasoline into the trenches and torched them. Statistics show how brutal the Japanese were: the death rate for American POWs was 33%, non-American 27.1%. Compare that to the allied prisoner death rate in German and Italian camps, 4%. In case you are curious the prisoner death rate held in allied camps, .001%.”

Claire was also not immune from the Japanese brutality. Arrested for being a collaborator she was tortured to get a confession and to give a list of her fellow conspirators. She only told the names of those already arrested. While tied to a bench a garden hose was put in her mouth and after she had passed out they would put lighted cigarettes on her legs to revive her. She was sentenced in November 1944 to death and then the sentence was commuted to twelve years hard labor. Luckily she was saved by the American invasion.

Sadly, her own government, refused to compensate her for out of pocket expenses. Eisner wants Americans to understand, “Claire did not fit the easy mold of a noble hero, a patriot who marches off to war, triumphs, and is acclaimed. But between Claire, Boone, and Parsons, Japan’s war machine failed in the Philippines. Eventually the American government recognized each of their contributions. In 1948 Claire received the Presidential Medal of Freedom recommended by General MacArthur and signed by President Truman. John Boone received the Distinguished Service Cross, and Chick Parsons received multiple awards including the Distinguished Service Cross, two Navy crosses, and the Bronze Star.”

Authors, such as Peter Eisner, bring history alive and hopefully allow for future generations to never forget. The story actually reads like a spy thriller even though these are actual events and people. Anyone who wants to delve into this in more detail should refer to the author’s notes, index, and footnotes at the back of this riveting book. As the 70^th anniversary has recently passed Americans can reflect on those heroes who risked their lives for their country and fellow citizens.

The following review is a special for BlackFive readers provided by Elise Cooper. You can read all of our book reviews and author interviews by clicking on the Books category link in the right side bar.

One of the biggest crimes perpetrated on Americans was the horrific terrorist attack on September 11^th, 2001. It is said, “real heroes are born in the face of danger.” This is no more evident than when Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill took the three shots that killed Osama Bin Laden.

In the just published book The Operator, O’Neill recounts his years as a SEAL Team Warrior. Joining the SEALs on a whim, after growing up in Butte, Montana, he participated in many high profile missions. These include being a part of the team that rescued the “Lone Survivor” Marcus Luttrell, Captain Richard Phillips from the Somali pirates, and searching for the deserter Bowe Bergdahl. The book is a story of his adventures and missions that captured the human side of those in the Special Forces.

The Bin Laden mission was extremely dangerous, because of the different variables: not knowing the defense systems inside the compound, if there would be suicide bombers or improvised explosive devices inside the house, and the fear of being stuck inside Pakistan. Yet, on the helicopter ride he thought of “the single mom who jumped to her death, the realization of the last time I saw my family, and President Bush’s quote, ‘Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended.’”

It is obvious when a SEAL unit is deployed that individual heroes arise within the team effort. O’Neill explained that Americans should think of the player who made the last shot to win an important game. Although he received much of the acclaim it was very much a team effort where each player made some impact. In the Bin Laden kill it was his teammate who shot the son Khalid that allowed O’Neill to make the ascent up the stairs to the room where Bin Laden was found.

The book describes how “The point man lunged at the two women, assuming they had suicide vests...If they blew up, his body would absorb most of the blast, and I’d have a better chance of surviving...In less than a second, I aimed and pulled the trigger twice. Bin Laden’s head split open, and he dropped. I put another bullet in his head. Insurance.”

Similarly the book describes how a teammate, Johnny, rescued Captain Phillips by shooting a “pepper popper,” a target that pops up randomly and briefly requiring an immediate reaction with a perfect shot. But unfortunately, afterward, some of the team displayed envy and distrust. These emotions would also come into play after O’Neill shot Bin Laden.

He stated, “Johnny took this incredible heroic shot, and those people who did not shoot, got upset with him. I did tell him he was a hero and he should ignore them. I understand that these are Tier 1, alpha personalities and were jealous. I am also assuming there will be more ill will now that the book has come out. Guys were talking about me, saying ‘with all the extra attention, why is he bragging about it?’ I know that anyone on the team could have done what I did just as effectively. Even though I intended to stay in the Navy for thirty years, I now decided to retire after fifteen because people were bashing me for ‘trying to cash in.’ I should not have to prove myself to anyone, but had the feeling that I needed to. I did stay in a year and a half more after those died in the helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The crash was the worst loss in Naval Special Warfare history, thirty-one Americans killed. I think the terrorists were given too much credit. It came down to a mission that should not have happened and just a lucky shot.”

Does he feel he broke the SEAL code of silence? What he first wants to make clear is that he was not the person who wrote the book published in 2014, No Easy Way: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden. It was Mark Owen, the pen name for Matt Bissonnette. O’Neill thinks that being a Silent Warrior has been overplayed since before his own book there are “like ninety books out there by SEALs.”

Ernest Hemingway once said, “Courage is grace under pressure.” It is obvious that O’Neill and others in the Special Forces community have that as well as bravery and a patriotic spirit. He told of having a beer and pointing to the sky. This is something that should be done by every person on a regular basis because these people are the shields that keep Americans safe.

The following review is a special for BlackFive readers provided by Elise Cooper. You can read all of our book reviews and author interviews by clicking on the Books category link in the right side bar.

A recent novel is based on the factual story of one hero who did change the course of history, fighting against the tyranny of the Nazis. In Beneath A Scarlett Sky, Mark Sullivan chronicles the life of Pino Lella, a seventeen-year-old boy who grew into a man during the last years of World War II. Although all the facts could not be verified, the story is still extraordinary, and Sullivan stated that the following details are all true. He stated, “I contacted the daughter of the Nazi General who brutally used slave labors as well as his spiritual advisor. Regarding Pino, he is still living today and I was able to verify that he did indeed work as a spy and save Jewish refuges. I did the research and verification over the course of ten years and lived in Italy spending three weeks with Pino and finding other witnesses to what he told me. His name was given to a researcher by the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Center, Yad Vashem.”

This inspiring story is a lesson on courage. Those in America today should read it to realize that their current life is nothing compared to what those who suffered through the Nazi regime had to endure. Sullivan tells Lella’s story, showing man’s inhumanity to man in Italy, the forgotten front, where the Nazi war machine made the citizenship suffer and struggle.

The book begins in the summer of 1943, as the allies started bombing Milan. As in England, Italian families sent their children to the countryside to save them from possible death. But Pino was not content to lead a normal teenage life; instead, deciding to join the underground railroad of the Catholic Church and the Italian resistance to save Jewish lives. Unfortunately, despite heroic efforts nearly 20% of the Italian Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust. Readers will learn how the German SS found a list of Jews, rounded them up, put them on trains, and transported them to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Many others were machine gunned down or thrown into the lake, forced to freeze to death.

Yet, throughout the last years of World War II Pino risked his own life to save Jews. A very compelling scene tells how he led Jewish refugees across the dangerously snowy Alps to the Swiss border, having endured an avalanche that almost buried him and his rescues alive. Many of those trying to escape the grips of the Nazis did not have the physical strength; yet some how found the perseverance. They made the demanding climb up the mountain near Casa Alpina, many times with the refugees on his back, as he skied them to safety in icy weather.

The author noted, “I read accounts of what the Nazis actually did and confirmed a lot of what Pino told me. We cannot forget they had a long-range vision of genocide and atrocities, including hanging young boys’ head on barbed wire posts. I actually did the climb he did and made a video. After getting to the top, you cannot believe what these people went through to escape. It was a very dangerous and unforgiving setting.”

In addition to helping Jews escape, he also became a spy while the driver for General Hans Leyers, a commander in the Nazi engineering and construction group, Organization Todt. Pino’s parents, who insisted he sign up with Todt to avoid being conscripted by the Germans to fight on the Russian front, put him in this situation.

Unfortunately, very little is known about the General, until Pino came forward, because Leyers destroyed many of the documents.

When reading about Leyers, people might compare him to Wernher von Braun, dubbed “the father of the space age.” During World War II he was the technical director of the V-weapons development and head of the Mittelbau-Dora Planning Office, a division within the SS. He rose to become a major in the SS and used slave laborers from the Buchenwald concentration camp to build the V-2 rockets.

Leyers also used slave labor to keep the German war machine going. They were beaten, starved, and killed if they did not perform to the efficiency that was required. Sullivan is glad Pino stands as a witness to history, “He saw the German policy of intentional mistreatment of people. Over eleven million people were taken as slaves to build the fortification just at Pharaoh did in Egypt. The slaves would collapse from lack of nutrition. Leyers knew that the army functions on its supply lines and he made sure to keep the war machine going. He became a very powerful person; yet, stayed in the shadows. I used this quote, ‘In the game of life, it is always preferable to be a man of shadows, even in the darkness if necessary.’ Pino also stayed in the shadows to learn the locations of tanks, mines, fortifications, and factories that he passed on to the allied resistance.”

Pino was a witness to history, but unfortunately also saw his fellow Italians seek their own form of justice. The vigilantes rounded up people who they suspected of being collaborators and actual Nazis and shot them on the spot. According to Sullivan, “25,000 people were killed in Northern Italy by those in the resistance the 3 to 4 days after the war ended. There was absolute anarchy and chaos. Pino was the perfect example of mistaken identity. He wore a Nazi uniform and few people knew he was actually an allied spy, a seventeen year old who rose up and became a hero in the face of true evil.”

Beneath A Scarlet Sky is a very informative story. As people remember the Holocaust they should think about Pino who risked his own life to save others. Doris Wise, President of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors summarized this day, “On Yom HaShoah, we honor the memory of the millions who died under Nazism. But we owe them more than a day of commemoration, more than museums dedicated to a distant era. Memorializing the past is worthless if we fail to learn from it,” and one way to do this is make sure the stories of someone like Pino are told.  

A recent novel is based on the factual story of one hero who did change the course of history, fighting against the tyranny of the Nazis. In Beneath A Scarlett Sky, Mark Sullivan chronicles the life of Pino Lella, a seventeen-year-old boy who grew into a man during the last years of World War II. Although all the facts could not be verified, the story is still extraordinary, and Sullivan stated that the following details are all true. He stated, “I contacted the daughter of the Nazi General who brutally used slave labors as well as his spiritual advisor. Regarding Pino, he is still living today and I was able to verify that he did indeed work as a spy and save Jewish refuges. I did the research and verification over the course of ten years and lived in Italy spending three weeks with Pino and finding other witnesses to what he told me. His name was given to a researcher by the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Center, Yad Vashem.”

This inspiring story is a lesson on courage. Those in America today should read it to realize that their current life is nothing compared to what those who suffered through the Nazi regime had to endure. Sullivan tells Lella’s story, showing man’s inhumanity to man in Italy, the forgotten front, where the Nazi war machine made the citizenship suffer and struggle.

The book begins in the summer of 1943, as the allies started bombing Milan. As in England, Italian families sent their children to the countryside to save them from possible death. But Pino was not content to lead a normal teenage life; instead, deciding to join the underground railroad of the Catholic Church and the Italian resistance to save Jewish lives. Unfortunately, despite heroic efforts nearly 20% of the Italian Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust. Readers will learn how the German SS found a list of Jews, rounded them up, put them on trains, and transported them to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Many others were machine gunned down or thrown into the lake, forced to freeze to death.

Yet, throughout the last years of World War II Pino risked his own life to save Jews. A very compelling scene tells how he led Jewish refugees across the dangerously snowy Alps to the Swiss border, having endured an avalanche that almost buried him and his rescues alive. Many of those trying to escape the grips of the Nazis did not have the physical strength; yet some how found the perseverance. They made the demanding climb up the mountain near Casa Alpina, many times with the refugees on his back, as he skied them to safety in icy weather.

The author noted, “I read accounts of what the Nazis actually did and confirmed a lot of what Pino told me. We cannot forget they had a long-range vision of genocide and atrocities, including hanging young boys’ head on barbed wire posts. I actually did the climb he did and made a video. After getting to the top, you cannot believe what these people went through to escape. It was a very dangerous and unforgiving setting.”

In addition to helping Jews escape, he also became a spy while the driver for General Hans Leyers, a commander in the Nazi engineering and construction group, Organization Todt. Pino’s parents, who insisted he sign up with Todt to avoid being conscripted by the Germans to fight on the Russian front, put him in this situation.

Unfortunately, very little is known about the General, until Pino came forward, because Leyers destroyed many of the documents.

When reading about Leyers, people might compare him to Wernher von Braun, dubbed “the father of the space age.” During World War II he was the technical director of the V-weapons development and head of the Mittelbau-Dora Planning Office, a division within the SS. He rose to become a major in the SS and used slave laborers from the Buchenwald concentration camp to build the V-2 rockets.

Leyers also used slave labor to keep the German war machine going. They were beaten, starved, and killed if they did not perform to the efficiency that was required. Sullivan is glad Pino stands as a witness to history, “He saw the German policy of intentional mistreatment of people. Over eleven million people were taken as slaves to build the fortification just at Pharaoh did in Egypt. The slaves would collapse from lack of nutrition. Leyers knew that the army functions on its supply lines and he made sure to keep the war machine going. He became a very powerful person; yet, stayed in the shadows. I used this quote, ‘In the game of life, it is always preferable to be a man of shadows, even in the darkness if necessary.’ Pino also stayed in the shadows to learn the locations of tanks, mines, fortifications, and factories that he passed on to the allied resistance.”

Pino was a witness to history, but unfortunately also saw his fellow Italians seek their own form of justice. The vigilantes rounded up people who they suspected of being collaborators and actual Nazis and shot them on the spot. According to Sullivan, “25,000 people were killed in Northern Italy by those in the resistance the 3 to 4 days after the war ended. There was absolute anarchy and chaos. Pino was the perfect example of mistaken identity. He wore a Nazi uniform and few people knew he was actually an allied spy, a seventeen year old who rose up and became a hero in the face of true evil.”

Beneath A Scarlet Sky is a very informative story. As people remember the Holocaust they should think about Pino who risked his own life to save others. Doris Wise, President of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors summarized this day, “On Yom HaShoah, we honor the memory of the millions who died under Nazism. But we owe them more than a day of commemoration, more than museums dedicated to a distant era. Memorializing the past is worthless if we fail to learn from it,” and one way to do this is make sure the stories of someone like Pino are told.  

The following review is a special for BlackFive readers provided by Elise Cooper. You can read all of our book reviews and author interviews by clicking on the Books category link in the right side bar.

The Red Line by Walt Gragg is an action packed political military thriller with a “what if” war story scenario. In this novel, peace is shattered as World War III has a resurgent Communist Soviet Union pitted against the US in the heart of Germany. The best way to describe the plot, “war is hell.”

Gragg uses his experiences to create this story. A former Vietnam veteran he is able to write very realistic battle scenes. He also played war games while serving at the United States European Headquarters in Germany at the height of the Cold War, which adds authenticity to the novel.

He noted, “Much of the story came from my personal knowledge while serving in Europe for three years. I knew what we expected the Soviet Union to do in such a war and what our greatest fears were. I had significant experience with American command and control systems and some of the weapons in the book. In my 38 months there, I was able to gain a great deal of insight into how such a ground war in Europe would look and what the American military feared most about a Russian attack.  What I saw was a potential nightmare of unspeakable proportions, our strengths and weaknesses versus theirs.”

The plot begins in the not too distant future where Fascists once again come to power. The new Fuhrer, Manfred Fromisch, a leader that promises unity and protection from the Communists, is able to quash the uprisings with his ruthless SS paramilitary forces. The fanatical Russian leader, a la Vladimir Putin, orders the Soviet military to invade Germany and reclaim the Eastern sector. They use the strategy of deception, sabotage, and excess manpower to potentially win this war in five days. In a bold move they catch the Americans off guard, because the US political leaders refused to accept the warning given by the military leaders.

The US President is definitely a political animal that “was written by me to be more concerned about getting re-elected than doing what is right for the country. He fails the American people and fails as Commander-In-Chief because his self-interest is more important than doing his job. He refused to allow the military to do what it needs to do, having a full alert. This led to a domino effect where Americans were caught flat-footed. The President is not cautious, but reckless because he did not follow the advice of his cabinet.”

Gragg shows how individuals play an important role with their decisions and choices. The US President appears to be part of the Vietnam Syndrome, not interested in going to war at all costs. Because of this the Americans are complacent and the losses become extraordinary. A warning, this is not a sunshine and roses book. Almost all the heroes, brave men and women, face death and destruction so readers should not get too attached to any character.

Almost all of the heroes were killed off because the author hoped to show how video games are unrealistic. “I wanted to show how good people die and never come back to life, a reality that is not prevalent in video games. There are no happy endings in the realistic theatre of war. No one should ever become immune to killing, and war should never be taken lightly.”

This is no more evident in the scenes involving Russian atrocities. They are truly evil as they use chemical weapons, and tactical nuclear weapons. The quote hammers the point home, “They arrived at Ramstein as ruthless bullies,” mowing down civilians and US forces. Their strategy was using sabotage, murder, and terror. They did everything to go against humanity in the crowded setting of Germany, with over eighty million people in an area the size of Oregon, making it even more chilling.

Although most of the scenarios in the book are very realistic, the one involving Fascists regaining power seems very far-fetched. Not only would the German people not elect them, the NATO countries would never let them regain power. There is no way an American President would be allowed to look the other way, and ignore the threat.

The Red Line is not a techno thriller, but a story of how individuals play into the equation. Readers will question what lessons were learned from World War II. This dark tale has a major message: be cautious in going to war, but sometimes war is necessary to defeat evil.

1862: Disappointed in the lack of progress of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, President Abraham Lincoln departs for Hampton Roads, Va. on the Treasury Department revenue cutter Miami to personally oversee operations. Over five days, the president - a former militia rifle company commander - directs the bombardment of Confederate positions and lands to conduct reconnaissance of the area with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase.

1864: The bloody albeit inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness (Virginia) opens between Union Army forces under the command of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, and Confederate forces under Gen. Robert E. Lee. Fighting is grim: Casualties will be heavy on both sides. Union and Confederate generals will be killed. Wounded and trapped soldiers will be burned alive by a battle-sparked woods fire. Within two days, Grant will disengage and advance toward Spotsylvania Courthouse.

1916: Two companies of Marines from the transport USS Prairie (AD-5) land at Santo Domingo, beginning the United States' eight-year occupation of the Dominican Republic. The leathernecks provide protection for the U.S. Legation and Consulate, and occupy the nearby Fort San Geronimo.

1917: Eugene J. Bullard becomes the first black combat aviator, earning his wings with the French Air Service. The Columbus, Ga. native's father came to America from the Caribbean island of Martinique and his mother was a Creek indian. Bullard fled to Europe to escape racism in the United States and joined the French Foreign Legion as a machine gunner, seeing action in the Somme, Champagne, and Verdun campaigns before being wounded. After recovering, he joined the air service and earned his pilot's license. The "Black Swallow of Death" would fly 20 combat missions for the French - claiming two aerial kills - before war's end. He volunteered for the infantry when Germany invaded France again in 1940 and was wounded.

Excerpt - the rest of the post can be found at Unto the Breach.