Brave Are the Lonely: A Novel of World War II

by Jack Langley

Jim Mathews is a high school senior in a small town near Little Rock, Arkansas, and his future doesn't look bright. He works a variety of odd jobs to help support his mother. His grades aren't exemplary, but at least he graduates. On a whim, he joins the U.S. Marine Corps, and on the last day of August in 1940, he ships out to boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina. At the time, talk of war is on the horizon, but Mathews has no idea of what he will eventually face. Brave Are the Lonely follows the course of his military career-from boot camp to advanced infantry training and Officer's Candidate School Training at Quantico, Virginia, to tours of duty in four fierce, major battles, including Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima, where he is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. It also shares the story of his personal life-how he meets his wife Helen and how he spends his postwar years crisscrossing the country on behalf of the government, recalling his retirement from the military and his life as an educator in a relatively obscure small town in Georgia. This historical novel provides insight into the battles in the Pacific during World War II and pays tribute to the men who gave their lives.

210 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2013

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 2 out of 5]

Off to a bad start. No Marine recruit carried a Garand M-1 during bootcamp in 1940. That weapon was not issued to Marines until late 1942, early 1943. Recruits at that time trained with the WWI M-1903 Springfield rifle. And as for "The Cruicible" exercise, that was not introduced into recruit training until 1996. Errors continue throughout the remainder of the book. Prior to 1953 there was no formal infantry training program in the Marine Corps. The Jefferson Memorial was not completed and dedicated until 1943, so it could not have been viewed from the top of the Washington Monument in 1940. There are 898, not 555 steps in the Washington Monument (I walked up and down those steps several times as a youth and once raced up them in a near-drunken stupor in the early '70's. The monument is 555 feet tall). There was no Camp Pendleton in December, 1941. It was not authorized to be built until March, 1942 and first occupied by the 9th Marines in September, 1942. The 1st Marine Division did no training at Pendleton prior to its assault of Guadalcanal. The battleships New York, Texas, Arkansas, and Idaho were not "refloated" battleships. They were not at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. Lastly, Iwo Jima is a volcanic island. It is not "jungle infested". I realize that this is just a novel but can't we just have a few facts?