This is the story of a young American who leaves home and enters the army in 1943, much against his family's wishes. It is a story of duty, love and friendship, the tale of a journey from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to the jungles of New Guinea and Luzon and the hell that was the battle for Manila, a battle in which the Japanese slaughtered innocent Philippinos in their thousands. It is a story of how young Americans were tested, mentally, physically and emotionally and of how they overcame hunger, fear and the ferocious Japanese to liberate the Philippines.