Later, after being wounded, he rotated back to Washington, where he became the chief of Ship Characteristics and Fleet Requirements at the newly constructed Pentagon.
Ben received his commission and by 1941 was Gunnery Officer aboard the USS Enterprise. Like so many, they lived idyllic lives, only to fight and die on battlefields, in the air and on the seas during World War II.īen and Bill graduated from the Naval Academy, Ben in 1930 and Bill three years later. They grew up near the Jersey shore, in a home called Lilac Hedges, in those inter-war days. The third, Barton, was born of Arthur Barton Cross in 1918. The eldest two brothers, Ben and Bill, sons of Dr.
She describes, for example, the logistics for the invasion of Saipan, an island 3,500 miles from Pearl Harbor: “ 120 days of provisions for three hundred ships’ companies, with an additional sixty-days of supplies for the 100,000-man landing force.” An assault plan had to be devised “ to put 8,000 men ashore every twenty minutes.” She quotes Sun Tzu: “ Many calculations lead to victory and few calculations lead to defeat.” Her bibliography of interviews conducted, venues visited, and reference material cover ten pages. But the book is more than that she covers the Pacific War, from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She writes of the search for the youngest, Barton who was taken prisoner after the fall of the Philippines, in March 1942. Sally Mott Freeman’s story is of three brothers – her father (Bill) and two uncles (Ben and Barton) – and their mother Helen. It is in this pantheon of great war books that The Jersey Brothers belongs, a story of the War in the Pacific. They enfold us and make us part of the fabric of their story. Others are non-fiction, like With the Old Breed and We Were Soldiers Once…and Young. Short days ago/We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow/Loved and were loved…” There are novels that provide a sense of the personal, like The Red Badge of Courage, All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Naked and the Dead. His poem “In Flanders Fields” was written in 1915. The World I poet John McCrae, who died in France in January 1918, echoed those feelings. “ Starving men forget discipline, forget honor and forget self-respect”Īboard the Japanese prison ship Enoura Maru, January 1945īooks on war that emphasize the personal, the stories of the average soldier, marine, sailor or airman paint a moving (and true) picture of war, its fright and its horrors. “The Jersey Brothers,” by Sally Mott Freeman
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