SAFELY REST [Hardcover]

David P. Colley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2004

From 1945 to 1950, the United States returned 178,000 dead American servicemen back home and reburied another 80,000 in overseas cemeteries at their families' request. Never before had a nation returned so many of its fallen warriors from distant battlefields. But another 78,000 servicemen were still missing in action-their bodies never to be found-their families never to know the peace of closure.

Safely Rest recalls this virtually forgotten episode of WWII through the recollections of the survivors and the letters and histories of the dead themselves. It tells of those who struggled to absorb their loss and rebuild their lives-and of those who would never be able to move on.

Most memorably, it tells of Lt. Jesse D. "Red" Franks, Jr--first reported missing, then dead, then reported to be alive-and of his extraordinarily devoted father, who gave up everything to work as a missionary in war-torn Europe for years until he discovered what truly happened to his son.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Military journalist Colley unearths an important and often overlooked episode from the annals of WWII with this account of one of the war's sadder epilogues: the repatriation of the bodies of 233,181 American soldiers who died in combat overseas. The American government sponsored a vast reburial program that lasted more than six years and cost over $200,000,000 (the equivalent of several billion dollars today). Colley (The Road to Victory) wisely focuses the narrative on one figure, Lt. Jesse D. "Red" Franks Jr., who served in a vital air raid over Ploiesti, Romania (whose refineries supplied oil to Germany), in August 1943. Colley traces Franks's service on the European front, his fateful last flight, his father's attempts to find his missing son while working as a missionary in postwar Europe and the eventual repatriation of Franks's remains. This narrative strategy takes the book far beyond morbid accounting of the war dead; it provides a human face to the collective narrative of WWII. While Colley's writing sometimes falters into floridity ("Barge traffic jammed parts of the river that many crew members expected to be a ribbon of blue on the verdant plain"), his eye for detail and ability to tell an emotionally nuanced story result in a book of extraordinary interest to students of WWII and an important reminder of the sacrifices made by "the greatest generation."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

David P. Colley is an award-winning journalist, formerly with the Baltimore Sun, who writes frequently on military subjects for numerous national publications.

He is the author of the well-received Blood for Dignity, and The Road to Victory, which won the Army Historical Foundation's Distinguished Book Award. END

Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: The Berkley Publishing Group; 1st edition (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425198359
• ISBN-13: 978-0425198353
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,981,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Primarily follows one family, December 19, 2006

By 

DKDJuniata "dkdjuniata" (Williamsburg, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Safely Rest (Paperback)

I bought this book expecting, from the information on the front cover, to read a lot about the retreival of soldier's remains, transporting those remains, and their reinternment. Unfortunately, over 2/3rds of the book follows one father's quest to find his son's remains. The story of Dr. Frank's search for his son is somewhat fascinating, and many readers may find it of interest. If you purchase the book knowing that it deals primarily with one soldier, then it is a good read, but don't buy the book if you are expecting a lot of details on the graves registration service and their work.

4.0 out of 5 stars a father's obsession, August 22, 2008

By 

Phil Squares (PTC, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Safely Rest (Paperback)

This book revolves around a devoted father's obsession to find answers to his son's MIA turned to KIA status on a bombing mission to Polesti in WW 2. Intertwined in the story is a backdrop of Graves Registration duties during the war and the subsequent decisions made as to missing persons. Another major story line is the father's on going written battles with the War Department as to the final classification to his son's status and finding his remains. Not a happy story.

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad, But Necessary Story, November 27, 2004

By 

Neal Bellet (Wayne, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SAFELY REST (Hardcover)

This is a very different kind of WWII story. Author David Colley tells us why these men were part of "The Greatest Generation." These heroes left their homes and families, some willing, some not, to go off and fight a war to save the world from two enemies dedicated to the destruction of everything that these men believed in. However, Colley also shows us that there were other members of "The Greatest Generation." The fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, wives, children, and fiancées of those who were killed during the war, for as he shows, these were the people who were left to carry and to rebuild shattered lives. He does this very poignantly by citing many examples including the one used throughout the book, the story of Red Franks, an airman who was killed during the first raid over Ploesti. This is a book that had to be written and one that has to be read by anyone interested in WWII. I highly recommend it.