G.I. Jive: An Army Bandsman in World War II

by Frank Furlong Mathias

Book by Mathias, Frank Furlong

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Nora Branch Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Mathias was a teenager in a small town when the draft swept him into the army and then halfway around the world to the jungles of the South Pacific. He served in the huge invasion force in the Battle of Manila, the deadliest single battle of the Pacific War. As an army musician attached to the 37th Infantry Division, Mathias saw the war from the bottom of the heap, where young privates lived and died. In his best selling book The GI Generation, Mathias tells of growing up in small-town America between the wars. In GI Jive he recalls the gritty experience of combat as well as the music and the homefront pleasures the GIs fought to preserve

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank was one of my dad's army buddies --- one of the Hoosiers --- my dad did not go overseas but the guys all stayed close over the years at their army band reunions