Safely Rest Hardback - 2004

de Colley, David P.

From 1945 to 1950, the United States returned 178,000 dead American servicemen back home and reburied another 80,000 in overseas cemeteries at their families' request. Never before had a nation returned so many of its fallen warriors from distant battlefields. But another 78,000 servicemen were still missing in action-their bodies never to be found-their families never to know the peace of closure.

Safely Rest recalls this virtually forgotten episode of WWII through the recollections of the survivors and the letters and histories of the dead themselves. It tells of those who struggled to absorb their loss and rebuild their lives-and of those who would never be able to move on.

Most memorably, it tells of Lt. Jesse D. "Red" Franks, Jr--first reported missing, then dead, then reported to be alive-and of his extraordinarily devoted father, who gave up everything to work as a missionary in war-torn Europe for years until he discovered what truly happened to his son.