WORLD WAR II TRANSPORT PILOT — James Law

Transport Pilot is an adventure story of a U.S. Marine Corps aviator during the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II. It is historical fiction that takes some liberty with events, places, and people. The buildup to WW II and the early Pacific War campaign against Japan provides the background to dramatize the training, courage, and leadership of a Marine pilot and his crew. The story includes the sixteen-day battle for Wake Island in December 1941. It is a tribute to the brave Marines, Navy, Army, and civilian personnel who withstood repeated bombing attacks from Japanese forces. They exacted a high price in Japanese ships, planes, and casualties before surrendering on 23 December. Remember Wake became a unifying catchphrase for the United States and our military during a grim series of setbacks in early 1942.Jim Lawman Law is a retired naval officer and defense contractor. He has been a World War II researcher, especially of the Pacific theater, for decades. After reading dozens of WWII books and conducting research at The Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific and several Presidential Libraries, the outline of an adventure novel set in the late 1930s started to develop. No doubt Commander Law was influenced by his Navy experiences during seven carrier cruises to the Far East, Southern Pacific, and Persian Gulf to write about a Marine Corps transport Plane Commander and his crew. As a former combat support Air Intercept Controller flying from aircraft carriers, Law strives to show that logistics and effective higher command decision-making are critical to the successful employment of combat units and victory. Without adequate beans, bullets, bandages, and fuel, the brave warfighters on the pointy end of the stick are weakened, and perhaps even doomed to defeat. After the debacle of Pearl Harbor, American combat planning was in disarray. Battleships, once key to offensive naval warfare, proved to be vulnerable to air power. In December 1941, Japanese weapons, training, and tactics were far more capable than expected by the American Navy and Army. Guam was never considered defensible in a war with Japan. Wake Island, two thousand miles west of Oahu, fell into the same category without radar, modern fighter aircraft, and the continual support of U.S. aircraft carriers. Admiral Kimmel and his staff organized a bold, complex, and flawed plan for the relief of the 1,500 Americans besieged on Wake. In the end, it offered too little combat power, too late.