International Juried Competition   |   Act Now.   Enter by July 16.
Welcome Sign out Sign in Not yet a member? Shopping Cart
Click to preview book

"Corregidor is where I sit and hear the voices of my young friends and colleagues. It's where I sit amidst the broken-down ruins of my youth, America's naive youth, and see in my mind's eye no ruins at all."

Al McGrew experienced, achieved and survived something extraordinary, when others around him did not. He didn't write this book as a memoir, but to relate the experiences of those of his contemporaries who did not survive. When all around him the world was going to hell, he was fortunate to remain in the calm eye of the storm. They may be his memories,  but they surely are our treasure.

Travel with Al though his wartime experience full circle from Columbus Ohio, to Angel Island and beyond - into the historic locations of Corregidor, Bilibid Prison, Cabanatuan III POW Camp, Pasay School, Nichols Field, the Hell Ship Noto Maru, Moji and Omori camps in Japan, and then home at last!

The book's 240 pages are 10 x 8 inches (25cm x 20cm) and are comprehensively illustrated with full color photographs of Corregidor Now battlefields, its historic pre-war buildings and scenery, and numerous artifacts. Also featured are the series of four POW drawings by Spencer Bever, Al's childhood friend, who with Al signed on for adventure and excitement - only to collide head first with the Great Pacific War. These poignant sketches, made at the risk of severe beatings, record the life and circumstances of the prisoners' at the Pasay School and their back-breaking years digging away a hill where the second runway of Manila International Airport now stands.

EXO

About the Author

Paul Whitman
EXO  Brisbane, Australia/ Manila, Philippines
Through the Corregidor Historic Society and the 503d PRCT Heritage Bn., Paul presents two publications from the website's corcunopia of resources: AMID TH' ENCIRCLING GLOOM is the poignant recollection of a naive America caught up in a war of almost unimaginable gloom. Its protagonists are Al McGrew and Spncer Bever, two school friends from Columbus, Ohio, who sign up for adventure and instead find themselves in the midst of the Fall of Corregidor. Al, who "aged from seventeen to forty in six months," is a peculiar amalgam of strengths and weaknesses, but his memories of those times are of crystal clarity. COMBAT OVER CORREGIDOR is a tribute to the humanity, camaraderie, teamwork and strength of purpose of the ordinary American citizen soldier in the 1940's rather than a sequential retelling of individual battles on a distantly relevant Philippine battlefield. Paul is married with 3 children. He is a retired lawyer, presently living in the Philippines.

Also by this Author

Combat Over Corregidor, as listed under History

Created With

Make a Book