Worlds Away

The son of a Marine Corps combat veteran journeys to an island in the far western Pacific and retraces his father's deployments. Traveling 9,000 miles to Micronesia and the Republic of Palau sixty years later, he discovers an incredible amount of war debris under the sea and on the battlefields of Peleliu. He walks the hard coral beach at The Point where Captain George Hunt's company faced ferocious enfilading fire. He finds weapons and ammunition on Orange Beach and the Horseshoe Valley. He climbs the hill where Captain Everett Pope earned the Medal of Honor, and hikes across Bloody Nose Ridge with a Palauan battlefield guide. The trail leads to the limestone caves that hid thousands of enemy soldiers determined to die rather than surrender. He recounts what his father saw and did, and imagines what he felt. This biographical and historical account documents the journey of two lifetimes. The somber shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon, the ancient culture of Yap, the tropical beauty of Peleliu and the Rock Islands of Palau provide the picturesque setting as the author uncovers the scars of war in the remnants of fierce combat. Contemporary color photographs are juxtaposed with pictures taken during the actual battle in 1944.Patrick Finelli is the author of 'Worlds Away', published 2004 under ISBN 9780975498903 and ISBN 0975498908.