Author Joseph McCallus featured in Ledger-Enquirer
Mar 15th, 2016By Larry Gierer
The naval officer writes about his first time in battle, about how it was not what he had imagined from pictures, and how men did not behave in ways he thought they would.
He recalls expecting great excitement but not seeing any. The men around him seem to be laboring under an intense strain. They are quiet and in complete control, doing their work efficiently just as they had drilled.
A shell explodes not far from him throwing out flame and smoke. He wonders how many it killed or maimed.
The episode is from a book to be published in 2017 called Forgotten Under a Tropical Sun: War Stories by American Veterans in the Philippines, 1898–1913.
The author is Joseph P. McCallus, a professor of English at Columbus State University since 1994, and a noted authority on the Southeastern Asian country. He recently signed a contract with Kent State University Press for the book’s publication.
