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by John Lewis Floyd (Author)
The Expendable is the true story of Charles Conrad Beckner, a young Navy corpsman confronting life and death in the opening battle of WWII in the Pacific. Charles leaves his Indiana sharecropper family and enlists in the Navy in 1939. After basic and clinical training as a hospital corpsman, Charles is posted to Cañacao Navy Hospital in the Philippine Islands. He is later assigned to Patrol Wing 10. In December 1941 he is serving as the independent duty Corpsman, caring for the crewmen of PBY Seaplane Squadron VP-102 at Olongapo. Japan opens the War in the Pacific on 7 December with a devastating strike on U.S. Navy ships at Hawaii. Six hours later, with smoke and flames still billowing from Pearl Harbor, Japan throws the full weight of its Imperial Military Forces against the outnumbered and under equipped Filipino Garrison. The American-Filipino Army is unable to hold a line of defense across the Bataan Peninsula. Low on ammunition ammunition and food, and riddled with malaria and dysentery, General Douglas MacArthur's troops retreat to the tip of the Bataan Peninsula to face surrender or worse. Left behind when the remnants of his PBY squadron fled south with the rest of the American Far East Fleet, Charles talks his way into Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 as a squadron corpsman and machine gunner on PT-34. After two months of action off Bataan and in the South China Sea, the four remaining PT Boats are handed a covert, critical mission: transport General Douglas MacArthur from the island fortress of Corregidor to the Del Monte airfield on the southern island of Mindanao. Four of the three PT Boats complete the harrowing two-night ocean run through enemy waters. Once MacArthur has flown on to Australia, the small squadron continue offensive operations around the southern islands. When PT-34 is lost, Charles is abandoned on the island of Cebu. He makes his way across the island on foot, evading roaming Japanese patrols and hostile natives. Reaching Mindanao Island, he joins an organizing guerrilla resistance. Charles is pulled for a special mission and unexpectedly reunited with crewmates from Patrol Wing 10. In a final desperate effort, they will attempt to repair and fly a badly damaged airplane to Australia.
