It makes me so happy to be able to say, I am a published author.
I am Author, Gerri Hilger. My book officially hit the shelves on Tuesday, October 23rd and can be purchased on Amazon, and wherever books are sold. Remember, if you don’t see it in your local bookstore, you can ask them to order it for you!
To buy your book on Amazon, just click HERE. Book reviews are so important for authors, and it would mean a great deal to me if you left a review on Amazon, and on Goodreads, too.
I’m having a book party Saturday, October 27th at Bluebird Books. If you’re local to Hutchinson, KS, I’d love to see you there! All the details can be found HERE.
John and Mary McHugh were strangers to me when I began writing OUR DUTY. One of my daughters had met (now) Father John at a wedding and was enthralled with his story. Due to her insistence, I contacted this elderly priest and learned more about his experiences during World War II. Through letters and phone calls with me yelling at him, (communicating over the phone with someone who is almost deaf is challenging, to say the least), Father John’s story dug into my heart and jumped into my book. When I visited him personally to discuss the book , I wanted to focus on Father, but he was such a humble man, he always wanted to talk about other people, including his sister Mary. At the time, she was just incidental to the main event.
First flight nurses with crew of one of the future Medical Transports. Mary is on the far right. Only one nurse tended 28 wounded on flights.
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Beauties Get More Attention
A cyber friend directed me to a photo collection of some of the very first flight nurses. Mary McHugh was the focus of many of the pictures. Her sweet beauty shone in the photos even dressed in the heavy clothing needed while flying at higher altitudes over Europe . I was happy that I had asked a few questions about Mary and wished I had inquired more as she was now sneaking into the book.
Mary Accumulated Thousands of Frequent Flyer Miles
Mary McHugh– Dec 43 loading C-47
Mary McHugh had made more than 10 trans-Atlantic flights caring for wounded soldiers under dire conditions during WWII. She also helped transport wounded from field hospitals to better facilities in Europe for treatment before the long trip back to the States. During the latter part of the war, she served with a broken heart after hearing her brother, a bombardier, had been killed when his plane exploded over Germany. The ten plus hour trips to America were busy as LT. McHugh and one med tech had the lives of 28 to 30 wounded men in their hands. The long flights back to the war zone offered time for rest, but the conditions on these planes was anything but relaxing. She must have spent many hours fighting anxiety of returning to combat area and concern for her parents who were also broken-hearted about the loss of their son.
Flight Nurses—Not Romance and Glamour
The life of a flight nurse was anything but the comfortable romantic adventure portrayed by Hollywood in a propaganda film. The nurse starring in this film, Helen Smith, was embarrassed to have been a part of the project. (source)
From the opening scenes, a viewer familiar with the reality of the flight nurses’ career would know that the depiction of their work was fictionalized. After the opening scenes, you can skip to part about Taffy’s time as a nurse if the rest is not of interest to you.
When my husband Paul and I fulfilled a long dream by traveling to Alaska four years ago, we learned so much about this magnificent place.
But when we left, we realized that we had barely scratched the surface of the history and story of our 49th state.
WW II Memorial: Fairbanks, Alaska
While in Fairbanks, we visited the WWII Memorial, and read several plaques honoring the military who served in Alaska. However, even there I don’t recall any mention of Native Alaskans from the Aleutian Island, the Aleuts, who suffered at the hands of the Japanese. 42 of these proud people and one white woman were taken prisoner by the Japanese when they invaded the islands to the west of mainland Alaska. (source)
Ihadn’t realized that the Japanese had actually landed on American soil. And, I had no idea that as a result of the invasion, American citizens were taken to Japan where they lived for three years under harsh conditions. More than half starved or died of diseases. Only a few were returned to Alaska at the end of the war, but they could not return to their home of Attu due to buried explosives left behind by the Japanese. Until a recent news story, I had presumed that the invasion consisted of only a few soldiers easily fended off by US military.
However, headlines and articles describing “carnage”, “fierce combat” “brutal” and “one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign” spoke of the reality.(source)
Two different garrisons totaling more than 4,000 soldiers invaded Attu and Kiska in the summer and fall of 1942. They began building an airfield and fortifications and became entrenched to fight off attacks from Americans and Canadians. (source) In addition to ground troops, they were bombarded and bombed by the American Army Air Corps when weather permitted . The US Navy attacked from the Bering Sea and protected harbors and bays with many skirmishes with the enemy. Both sides suffered high percentage of losses from not only combat, but the harsh landscape and weather of the Aleutian Islands. Due mostly to weather, however, it was not until the following spring that intense battles for the Aleutian Islands occurred in earnest.
The weather of Alaska added to the death toll, especially for infantrymen outfitted for the tropics instead of the arctic regions.
Just going to the movies or chow lines became a challenge during spring thaws.
“The final casualty counts were stunningly high for both sides, especially considering that Attu was an island so remote in the North Pacific. Fighting nearly to the last man, the Japanese suffered 2,351 killed as counted by the Americans. The actual number could be hundreds higher because some Japanese bodies might have been blown apart and made impossible to count. Also, the Japanese regularly buried their dead in secret locations to hide their casualty numbers. The Americans suffered 3,929 casualties. Of that number, 549 were killed in combat; many more were killed by friendly fire or by booby traps installed by the Japanese.” (source)
Amazing that so many American soldiers were killed to protect our country from invasion from the north during WW II. Few know about these events that occurred only 6 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
If white Americans had been captured on US soil and taken to Japan, I wonder if this part of our history would be basically forgotten. In May of 1945, a woman and five children were killed by a Japanese balloon bomb. The enemy had launched between 9,000 and 10,000, hoping they would start damage and cause damage on the west coast. An article ten years ago stated that, “the only civilians killed on US soil lost their lives 70 years ago yesterday.” (source) If the wife of the radio operator who was killed by the Japanese soon after they landed on Attu had read that, it must have been heart-breaking. After witnessing the murder of her husband, she was taken to Japan along with the Native Alaskans for the duration of the war.
Monument to the Inuit People near the WWII Memorial in Fairbanks.
I mentioned earlier an article that re-ignited my interest in Alaska during WW II. This article contained details about the discovery of part of a US Navy destroyer, The USS Abner Read. It was lost in the Bering Sea during the War due to an underwater explosion. You can learn more HERE.
Attu was so forbidding and desolate, the US Army Corps of Engineers / Camouflage Division built a fake tree.
