Customer Reviews

Four Came Home: The Gripping Story of the Survivors of Jimmy Doolittle's Two Lost Crews

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I am honored to have met a major character in this incredible book, Lt. Col. Chase Jay Nielsen. He is one of the four who survived imprisonment and torture by the Japanese after successfully flying as a member of the Doolittle Raiders in April 1942. He spent 3 1/2 years of his young life under inhumane conditions, cruelty, and hopelessness which you would think would destroy a man for the rest of his life, if he were able to survive at all. Chase is an incredibly compassionate, strong, sweet man who holds no hatred for the Japanese people although he is haunted by sadness when remembering the execution of 2 of his best buddies. Carrol Glines does a phenomenal job recounting this historic mission as well as the personal stories of the Raiders who didn't come home until World War 2 was over. His description of the last hours for the 3 airmen who were executed made me cry out loud, it was so moving. We need to teach the children to be thankful for men like the Doolittle Raiders who, when spotted a day early by a Japanese boat, knew that they didn't have the fuel to land their planes safely but chose to carry out their surprise attack anyway. This is a story of true selflessness, sorrow, victory, hope, bitter pain, and faith. Thank you, Raiders, and all who fought in this war, thank you. KIM

This book is only about 170 pages long so I easily finished it in one day. Wow!!! What an incredible story! I have to admit I knew little about this raid but upon seeing "Pearl Harbor" felt I needed to investigate further. This book concisely covers every facet of the mission and quickly gets into the flight.

While it states what happened to all the crews, it clearly focuses on the 8 captured crewmen and what happened to them while in captivity. I've read one other account of POWs written by John McCain and I can't help but applaud the training and quality of these men in their ability to survive. If you've ever wondered exactly what water torture is, this book will explain it to you.

The second to last chapter covers the return of the last held in captivity, George Barr. Due to extremely poor health, he had to stay behind for some time prior to traveling. What this did to him mentally will leave you in tears and I encourage you to buy this book if only for this chapter.

This is a great book of heroism and should be read by any American. I strongly recommend this book.

What is the price of freedom? Learn what a few, brave, untrained Americans had to live so that the remainder of us could be free.

Just as the title states; this is a gripping story. It's hard to imagine what these men went though being POWs for 40 months in consolitary confinement. They are true heroes along with the other raiders. May the three executed and one that died of malnutrition rest in peace.

Great Book. My previous comments about this book have been revised, because the book itself was very well written and I did enjoy it alot. My poor rating I gave before on this book was because I was dissatisified with the condition the book arrived in when I received it (pages missing etc). This should have been aimed at the seller and not the review of the book itself. The comments I received on my first reivew are appreciated.