THE EXPENDABLE

The Expendable is a captivating and deeply satisfying true story from the opening months of WWII in the Pacific. As smoke billows skyward from Pearl Harbor, Japan throws its full military might against the outnumbered and under-equipped Filipino forces. Hart sends his U.S. Asiatic Fleet south, to the safety of Allied waters. When the remnants of PBY Patrol Wing 10 depart with the fleet, Charles Beckner, corpsman for Squadron 102, is left behind with no apparent avenue for escape. Under relentless pressure, American-Filipino troops retreat to the tip of the Bataan Peninsula. Sick with malaria and dysentery and nearly out of food and ammunition, surrender is imminent for those who survive. Charles joins Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 as machine gunner and corpsman on PT-34. After two months of engaging enemy forces along the Bataan coast, Squadron 3 is tasked with a critical, covert mission that once more leaves Charles stranded, this time on the southern Philippine island of Cebu. As the Japanese noose tightens, Charles joins other sailors and soldiers preparing for guerrilla resistance from the interior mountains of Mindanao Island. His plans are interrupted by another assignment, one that unexpectedly reunites him with crewmen of his old seaplane squadron. With advancing Japanese troops only minutes away, there is one possibility for escape. It is risky, and failure will be fatal.