Last Man Off Wake Island

NINE days before Pearl Harbor, when the U.S.S. Wright dropped him there to set up special communications for the Marine base, the coral atoll that is Wake Island looked peaceful enough to Colonel Baylor. Japan was threatening and sulking, but he couldn’t remember when Japan wasn’t. Nine days later, stunned and shocked, he walked in “a sea of debris — some of it human.” That was the point at which the war really began for Colonel Baylor. Subsequently he saw action on Midway and on Guadalcanal, but nothing could equal that first shock of surprise when the world crashed about his ears at Wake. By the time he reached Guadalcanal, he could laugh at Wash Machine Charlie and Pistol Pete, the Jap bombardiers and gunners. And by that time we can laugh with him. This is the strong, masculine story of a Marine who has survived more war in a, short time than many of our fighting men will see.