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The extraordinary, real-life adventure of three brothers at the center of the most dramatic turning points of World War II and their mad race to change history - and save one of their own.They are three brothers, all Navy men, who end up coincidentally and extraordinarily at the epicenter of three of the war's most crucial moments. Bill is picked by Roosevelt to run his first Map Room in Washington. Benny is the gunnery and anti-aircraft officer on the USS Enterprise, one of the only carriers to escape Pearl Harbor and by the end of 1942 the last one left in the Pacific to defend against the Japanese. Barton, the youngest and least distinguished of the three, is shuffled off to the Navy Supply Corps because his mother wants him out of harm's way. But this protection plan backfires when Barton is sent to the Philippines and listed as missing-in-action after a Japanese attack. Now it is up to Bill and Benny to find and rescue him. Based on ten years of research drawn from archives around the world, interviews with fellow shipmates and POWs, and primary sources including diaries, unpublished memoirs, and letters half-forgotten in basements, The Jersey Brothers is a remarkable story of agony and triumph - from the home front to Roosevelt's White House, and Pearl Harbor to Midway and Bataan. It is the story, written with intimate, novelistic detail, of an ordinary young man who shows extraordinary courage as the Japanese do everything short of killing him. And it is, above all, a story of brotherly love: of three men finding their loyalty to each other tested under the tortures of war - and knowing that their success or failure to save their youngest brother will shape their family forever.



About the Author

Sally Mott Freeman

Sally Mott Freeman was a speechwriter and PR executive for 25 years before launching her research for this book. After penning speeches for an FCC commissioner and later its chairman, she became the agency's spokesperson and News Media Division Chief following the court-ordered breakup of AT&T, one of the most tumultuous periods in FCC history. Sally was also a VP at Fleishman Hillard, a global public relations firm, as well as Communications VP for two technology trade associations.
Sally is Board Chair Emerita of The Writer's Center, the premier independent literary center in the mid-Atlantic. She graduated from St. Anne's Belfield School in Charlottesville, which has honored her with its Distinguished Alumna Award, and received a degree in English Literature from Sweet Briar College, which also has honored her with its Distinguished Alumna award. She and her husband John have four children and five grandchildren.

What the critics are saying about Sally's book:

An Amazon bestseller and Best Book of May 2017: Sally Mott Freeman's The Jersey Brothers is the well-researched true story of three brothers living out a very personal narrative against the backdrop of WWII. Eldest brother Benny was an officer on the USS Enterprise, one of the only vessels to survive Pearl Harbor; and middle son Bill was assigned by Roosevelt to the Map Room in Washington. Youngest brother Barton was sent to the Philippines, where he was expected to be relatively safe - but after a Japanese attack, he was listed as MIA. The Jersey Brothers is the story of a family's frantic efforts to find and free the youngest brother, while he fights to survive life in a Japanese concentration camp. Author Sally Mott Freeman takes an intimately human approach to this war story, adding a meaningful and memorable chapter to our understanding of the Greatest Generation." --Chris Schluep, The Amazon Book Review

Named one of Amazon's Best History Books 2017, and one of its Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2017, The Jersey Brothers was also ranked in the top 100 Books of the Year by Amazon Editors.

"Highly dramatic history. [Freeman's] book is liable to break the hearts of Unbroken fans, and it's all true."
- The New York Times

"So powerful, so richly researched" Peter Baker - The New York Times

"A masterpiece of storytelling, infused with heroism and adventure. This moving portrait of three brothers is a brilliantly researched and written history of America's wartime role in the Pacific."
- Lynne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of Those Angry Days

"An evocative real-life ta



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