Takedown

It is summer, 1939. Like most Americans, young Grant Kirk is blissfully unaware of the secret war waging in central Asia. As that conflict grows, expert Japanese fighter pilot Isamu Ando engages Soviet fighter pilots over the Mongolian border and adds to his experience and kill list. After Pearl Harbor, Grant leaves college to join the millions of Americans who risk their lives to defend their country. Grant and two of his college wrestling teammates join different specialties of the Marine Corps. Grant is stationed in the South Pacific and soon must pit his skill with his F4F Wildcat in a deadly dogfight against the Japanese grand master, Ando. As if the fear of dying in the cockpit isn't concern enough, there is the realization that the waters down below are teaming with sharks. If a shot-down pilot makes it to land, he may still fall victim to the headhunters that inhabit the isolated islands. One of Grant's teammates survives some of the war's worst fighting in the steamy, disease-ridden jungles of Guadalcanal, only to face the terror of the death trap named Tarawa. The other teammate, a brilliant student/athlete, develops skills as a hand-to-hand combat specialist and leads a covert operations team with Marine Recon. This book weaves together important facts about the early story of World War II (often in special Intel sections) with the challenges facing Grant and his college teammates during this tumultuous time in history. The author brings the war to life through the eyes of these young men on both sides of the battle lines, with spot-on historical insight.