Between the Lines
National Medal of Honor Heritage Center Book Club
Join our community of passionate readers and audiobook listeners as we engage, between the lines, with the lives and inspirational stories of ordinary people navigating extraordinary circumstances. This quarter’s selection draws a moving narrative from the shadows of the Korean War and challenges us to pause and consider just how far we would go to save a friend. Register below today to join us in reading Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos. Books are available for purchase in the gift shop.
Session 1 | June 24 | 10am-12pm EDT
Session 1 will cover chapters 1-28 of the book and additional information on the Korean War.
Session 2 | July 15 | 3pm-5pm EDT
Session 2 will cover the reaming chapters of the book and more on the Jangjin (Chosin) Reservoir battle and subsequent Heungnam Evacuation. Participants will have the option to dine with the group at Zaya 1943 Steakhouse, a local Korean restaurant, after the session. *Participants are responsible for paying for their meal.
Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice
By Adam Makos
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • From America’s “forgotten war” in Korea comes an unforgettable tale of courage by the author of A Higher Call.
“In the spirit of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat comes Devotion.”—Associated Press • “Aerial drama at its best—fast, powerful, and moving.”—Erik Larson
Devotion tells the inspirational story of the U.S. Navy’s most famous aviation duo, Lieutenant Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown, and the Marines they fought to defend. A white New Englander from the country-club scene, Tom passed up Harvard to fly fighters for his country. An African American sharecropper’s son from Mississippi, Jesse became the navy’s first Black carrier pilot, defending a nation that wouldn’t even serve him in a bar.
While much of America remained divided by segregation, Jesse and Tom joined forces as wingmen in Fighter Squadron 32. Adam Makos takes us into the cockpit as these bold young aviators cut their teeth at the world’s most dangerous job—landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier—a line of work that Jesse’s young wife, Daisy, struggles to accept.
Deployed to the Mediterranean, Tom and Jesse meet the Fleet Marines, boys like PFC “Red” Parkinson, a farm kid from the Catskills. In between war games in the sun, the young men revel on the Riviera, partying with millionaires and even befriending the Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor. Then comes the conflict that no one expected: the Korean War.
Devotion takes us soaring overhead with Tom and Jesse, and into the foxholes with Red and the Marines as they battle a North Korean invasion. As the fury of the fighting escalates and the Marines are cornered at the Chosin Reservoir, Tom and Jesse fly, guns blazing, to try and save them. When one of the duo is shot down behind enemy lines and pinned in his burning plane, the other faces an unthinkable choice: watch his friend die or attempt history’s most audacious one-man rescue mission.
A tug-at-the-heartstrings tale of bravery and selflessness, Devotion asks: How far would you go to save a friend?
(Overview Courtesy of Amazon)
