REVIEW: The Last Full Measure by Kim Clarke
The Last Full Measure tells the forgotten story of the sacred mission to return America’s fallen from foreign battlefields.
In the fall of 1944, German flak shredded an American bomber in the skies over Austria. Four crew parachuted from the burning aircraft, but six spiraled five miles to their deaths. Among the dead was tail gunner Delbert Trueman. It had been his first mission. His remains would not return home for more than four years.
Clarke masterfully weaves this emotional journey and deeply personal family drama together with the larger story of the army’s Return the Dead Program that brought home more than 170,000 fallen soldiers from around the world. Here are accounts of the Japanese-American soldier who began the war in an internment camp and led a small unit that searched France and Austria for dead Americans; the civilian embalmer who processed some 10,000 soldiers; the captain of a transport ship that ferried 6,500 caskets at a time across the Atlantic; the military escorts who accompanied the dead on the final legs of their trips home; and the career soldier who managed the operation.
Solemn and heartrending, but also inspiring, The Last Full Measure completes the war story of those who died in foreign lands during World War II. It stands as a tribute to those who gave the last full measure in battle and to the unsung heroes who gave their own full measure to bring them home.
CW/TW – detailed discussions of the condition of human remains, racism against Japanese-Americans, racism against African-Americans, brief period sentiments of anger against enemies
Review
I’m not going to lie. I cried a few times while reading this book. In it, a granddaughter of a US bomber crew member whose plane was shot down while over Vienna, tells her grandfather’s story as well as the story of her family’s efforts to discover the fate of her grandfather and then bring his remains home.
The military needed to ensure that every airman, soldier, or sailor who died overseas in the war received the same dignity and closure as families like the Truemans, who had lost Dale stateside: A body, a funeral, and a burial. If America were to have a quiet champion for those soldiers who could no longer speak and whose families were left with the questions, emptiness, and confusion that came with a Western Union telegram, it would be Col. Robert Pattison Harbold.
Woven through this is also the history of Col. Robert Pattison Harbold, a veteran of dealing with repatriating the US dead from foreign lands having been put in charge of this after World War I and then brought back from retirement when the US military realized that they would be dealing with a much larger job following the end of this second world war.
One major change since then and now is that then, no remains, even those in Europe, were brought home until after the war had ended in the Pacific. Personal effects were sent soon after the service member’s death or when they were listed as MIA after being examined and sanitized by (often civilian, older female) employees of various Effects Bureaus (most military branches had their own). Once the war was over, the military was faced with several issues including the post-war scarcity of cotton sheeting, steel and wood for the coffins and packing cases. Morticians and embalmers had to be enticed (the pay was great) and arrangements finessed with the governments in whose soil the bodies had been buried and reburied due to civilians’ fears of sparking contagions from disinterment.
Family members, often having waited for years for official news of their loved one, had paperwork to deal with (it’s the government after all) and choices to make. Did they wish for their fallen brother, father, or son (I’m using male pronouns as most of the dead were men) to rest with his fallen comrades or be brought home? Opinions varied and feelings could rage about those choices. Some families, having visited the (then temporary) graves in Europe, felt at peace with letting their loved one remain with those he fought alongside or didn’t want to cause further grief with the repatriation process while others couldn’t imagine not having their relative laid to rest among family at home.
Disinterring the remains (often done by segregated units of African-American service members) and attempting to identify them was a gruesome task. Due to the sheer numbers, it took longer than the military and families wanted to “finish” bringing the dead home. I say “finish” as today the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) still looks to bring back over 72,000 listed as MIA – most from WWII.
Kim Clarke’s great-grandparents (her widowed grandmother had by then remarried so first next-of-kin status had reverted back to her grandfather’s father) chose to bring Delbert Trueman back to rest in Indiana, a process that took almost two years. Having made her mother a promise to delve into the story, Clarke spoke with several people directly involved with her grandfather’s service including most of the men who made it out of the flaming, flat spinning B-24 bomber, American Graves Registration Unit service members – including a Japanese-American whose family was interned during the war, morticians who worked post-war at the cemetery in Vienna where he was first laid to rest by the Germans and Austrians, and tells of the process by which the military brought Delbert home with honor and dignity. America owes a dignified return to their families of those who have fallen while serving. Here we see how this was done from the far flung places where they fought during World War II. B+
~Jayne
“With all my heart, I wish we might say to the defenders who survive, to mothers who sorrow, to widows and children who mourn, that no such sacrifice shall be asked again,” — President Warren G. Harding
“Our Dead have earned the right to rest in peace.” — Beatrice Patton
Here are the titles of three videos up on You tube
“Hymn to the Fallen” by John Williams – shows US Military cemeteries overseas
“Valor and Sacrifice: World War 2 film displayed at Netherlands American Cemetery – This and the next one tell of how the Dutch honor the US service personnel at the cemetery in Margraten
Dutch man faithfully honors American World War II soldier buried far from home
We didn’t expect to celebrate New Year’s Eve, 1948, this way, we the dead. Now we are coming home, recruits from cemeteries. . . . We died for the flag that covers our coffins—we died for an ideal—we died groping for a better world, greater understanding, greater gentleness.
— tribute by Ed Sullivan in the New York Daily News giving voice to the silent passengers arriving home in a funeral transport ship
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Heartbreaking, powerful and heroic. I think I want to read this, Jayne. The excerpts you provided are so clear, so well written. Thank you for reviewing it.
@Darlynne: It’s very well written. I’m not sure what Kim Clarke does for a living but she did a great job tracking down information and a few of the surviving people who had done work in general and others who had been stationed with her father or brought his remains back. Parts of it made me think of the movie “Taking Chance” which I highly recommend.
Thank you, @Jayne. This sounds like a fascinating though sad story.
I come for the romance content, but I appreciate hearing about other interesting books people are reading. Even if I don’t read the books myself, I feel like my world is a little broader for reading the reviews. Thanks.
@Kareni: It is sad and yet I got the feeling that once decisions were made and carried out by next-of-kin of the fallen military personnel, those people felt more at peace with the loss of their relative. One cemetery that might interest you is the one at Margraten in the Netherlands. Each grave and name of a missing person has been “adopted” by local Dutch families who visit the graves on important dates and lay flowers. These adoptions are often passed down through a family and there’s a waiting list of over 1000 people who want to adopt.
@Kris Bock: Yep, I understand. There are so many books I know I’ll never get to.