A father's odyssey. A mother's secret. A son's story. Wilber's War chronicles, in one volume, the story of two ordinary Americans, Wilber and Norma Bradt, during an extraordinary time, World War II. It offers fresh insight---deeply personal---into the historic conflict as it was fought by the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater and by a family on the home front. It is an epic tale of patriotic and familial duty, heroism, love, infidelity and the tragedy of suicide.
--- Based on a rich trove of wartime letters, Wilber's War is thoughtfully condensed by the author from his trilogy of the same name, which has received TWO SILVER AWARDS and numerous positive reviews:
--- "informed and informative ... thoughtful and thought-provoking ... inherently fascinating read ... deftly crafted ... very highly recommended for both community and academic library ... collections."; [Midwest Book Review, June 2015]; "fascinating, original biography...a superb job" [The Journal of Military History, Jan. 2016]; --- "Hale Bradt relates a story that could resonate with the multitude of families who also sacrificed a father, a husband or son [to war]" [Foreword Reviews, Fall 2015];
--- Author Hale Bradt, Wilber and Norma's son, shares his parents' stories with insight, compassion, and a wealth of carefully selected images that bring their experiences to life. Visiting (in the 1980s) the battlefields where his father fought, Bradt adds another uniquely American voice to this rich story: that of a son seeking to unravel the tangled threads of his family's legacy. --- 358 pages, 21 maps, 74 illustrations.