Synopses & Reviews
For readers of Unbroken comes an unforgettable tale of courage from America’s “forgotten war” in Korea, by the New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Call.
Devotion
tells the inspirational story of the U.S. Navy’s most famous aviator
duo, Lieutenant Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown, and the Marines they
fought to defend. A white New Englander from the country-club scene, Tom
passed up Harvard to fly fighters for his country. An African American
sharecropper’s son from Mississippi, Jesse became the navy’s first black
carrier pilot, defending a nation that wouldn’t even serve him in a
bar.
While much of America remained divided by segregation,
Jesse and Tom joined forces as wingmen in Fighter Squadron 32. Adam
Makos takes us into the cockpit as these bold young aviators cut their
teeth at the world’s most dangerous job — landing on the deck of an
aircraft carrier — a line of work that Jesse’s young wife, Daisy,
struggles to accept.
Deployed to the Mediterranean, Tom and
Jesse meet the Fleet Marines, boys like PFC “Red” Parkinson, a farm kid
from the Catskills. In between war games in the sun, the young men revel
on the Riviera, partying with millionaires and even befriending the
Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor. Then comes the war no one expected,
in faraway Korea.
Devotion takes us soaring overhead with
Tom and Jesse, and into the foxholes with Red and the Marines as they
battle a North Korean invasion. As the fury of the fighting escalates
and the Marines are cornered at the Chosin Reservoir, Tom and Jesse fly,
guns blazing, to try and save them. When one of the duo is shot down
behind enemy lines and pinned in his burning plane, the other faces an
unthinkable choice: watch his friend die or attempt history’s most
audacious one-man rescue mission.
A tug-at-the-heartstrings tale of bravery and selflessness, Devotion asks: How far would you go to save a friend?
About the Author
Adam Makos is the author of the New York Times and international bestseller A Higher Call. In his fifteen years of work as a journalist in the military field, Makos has interviewed countless veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and present-day wars. In pursuit of a story, Makos has met with presidents, had tea with Prince Charles, accompanied a Special Forces raid in Iraq, and led an expedition into North Korea in search of an MIA American serviceman. He lives in Denver.