Flight to Freedom
Lieutenant Commander Terry Cook is skipper of the USS Tanager, an obsolescent minesweeper in the wrong place at the wrong time. The place is the Philippine Islands, and the time is on the verge of Pearl Harbor. The Tanager is a happy little ship with an experienced crew that works well together. Things change overnight when the United States is plunged into war with Japan, and the Tanager transforms from a pleasant duty station in a tropical paradise to a target for any stray Japanese warship or aircraft that happens by.
As the Tanager, by process of elimination, becomes one of the few remaining U.S. warships in the region, she becomes more valuable as a combat unit and a potential avenue of escape from the coming inevitable defeat. Nurses being evacuated before the Japanese victory and merchant sailors stranded in the islands hitch a ride on the minesweeper and become indispensable members of the ship’s company as Terry Cook tries to keep half a step ahead of the invading Japanese.
Palmiotti captures not only the facts of a wartime navy, but also the feel of that desperate few months at the start of the war when American forces in the Philippines faced a skillful and ruthless enemy but had little hope of the reinforcements they so badly needed. As Terry Cook and his crew weave through the vast tropical archipelago, the reader probably wouldn’t be surprised to run into John Wayne and Donna Reed and the other expendable American service members who faced death or captivity but still fought on. For those like me who love tales of World War II in the Pacific, this book delivers.
