As Japanese forces close in for an all-out effort to recapture Guadalcanal from the American forces occupying the island, many fates converge and intertwine. First Lieutenant William Dunn, twenty-one years old but already one of the only two pilots remaining from his fighter squadron’s original sixteen, must learn what it is like to lead men — and to lose them. Hot-tempered Sergeant Thomas McCoy finds he has a hero’s welcome waiting stateside — if he can avoid a court-martial first. On a bloody island, Major Jake Dillon discovers just how much combat is involved in a combat correspondent’s life. First Lieutenant R.B. Macklin, a consummate bully, is put on a War Bond tour so he will not endanger his own men.
