About the Event
Enlarge
Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center welcomes author Mark D. Van Ells, discussing his new book Red Arrow Across the Pacific: The Thirty-Second Infantry Division during World War II
Discover how this National Guard unit with roots in the American Midwest became on of the most effective – and most battle-tested – combat units in the Pacific, eventually logging more combat hours than any other US Army division during the war. Far more than a traditional battle narrative, Red Arrow across the Pacific offers a cultural history of the Red Arrow’s wartime experience, from its mobilization in 1940, to its deployment across New Guinea, Australia, and the Philippines, to its postwar occupation of Japan. Drawing from letters, memoirs, and interviews, author Mark D. Van Ells lets the soldiers speak for themselves, describing in their own words the terror of combat, their impressions of foreign lands, the struggle to maintain their own humanity, and the many ways the war profoundly changed them.
Mark D. Van Ells is a professor of history at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York. He received his PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is a native of the Badger State. Van Ells is the author of To Hear Only Thunder Again: America’s World War II Veterans Come Home and America and World War I: A Traveler’s Guide.
Learn More About This Event
