Adam Makos's Devotion is an Inspirational Work Ideal for the Holidays
By Mark Rhodes
Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship and Sacrifice (Ballantine Books) is the riveting account of one of the most fascinating episodes of the Korean War; a war that is too often overlooked and is mostly known about from the popular film and subsequent television series M*A*S*H.The heart of the book is the relationships between Ensign Jesse Brown, the first African-American aviator in the U.S. Navy and the well-known Naval Aviator Captain Thomas Hudner Jr. who was assigned to the same Fighter Squadron as Ensign Brown and whose heroism in The Battle of Chosin Reservoir (particularly as it related to his bravery with regard to Ensign Brown) earned him The Medal of Honor.With Devotion, NY Times bestselling author Adam Makos (A Higher Call), has put together a meticulously researched work that is intimate and epic–poignant and rousing. Mr. Makos was nice enough to conduct an email interview with In Flight’s Mark Rhodes about his work, the relationship between Brown and Hudner as well as the dangers of having a “forgotten” war. (Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead)IF USA: How did you come upon this piece of Korean War history?AM: “It all began as a chance encounter in a hotel lobby.”“I was a young magazine writer at the time, searching for my next big story, when I saw him at the history conference in Washington, D.C., just sitting across the hotel lobby. He was Captain Tom Hudner. His name is legendary in military circles, for what he did to try to save his wingman, Jesse Brown—an intentional crash landing, behind enemy lines. It was one of the most inspiring acts in military history. It hadn’t happened before, and it hasn’t happened since. It was so super-human that the captain of his aircraft carrier went on the record saying, ‘There has been no finer act of unselfish heroism in military history.’”“I just had to figure out how Tom became the kind of person who would take such a risk and why? What was it about Jesse Brown that would make Tom want to put his life on the line?”IF USA: At the time, how big of a deal was it that Jesse Brown became the Navy’s first African American aviator?AM: “While Jesse’s success was obviously noteworthy, the newspaper in Jesse’s hometown of Hattiesburg, Miss. refused to report that he had won his wings. The Navy, on the other hand, publically touted Jesse’s success, and even Tom Hudner had read about him prior to their first meeting in January 1950.”IF USA: Jesse Brown is hardly an obscure character in history but is probably overshadowed by some of the Tuskegee Airmen from WWII–is there a reason he is not better known as a pioneering figure in African American and even military history?AM: “I believe he’s little known because his life was cut short. He never came home to become the Navy’s first African American admiral or a congressman. He died on a North Korean mountainside at age 25. The Tuskegee Airmen were lucky to have one another in breaking the color barrier. Jesse, on the other hand, had to do it alone.”IF USA: Thomas Hudner Jr.’s background was wildly, almost comically opposed to Jesse Brown’s; having said that, were there some basic similarities between the two?
AM: “Tom and Jesse came from different worlds but shared a common thread of patriotism. Both loved their country and wanted to serve it. Tom threw away his chance to go to Harvard, to inherit his family business, and tolive a comfy, silver-spoon sort of life to go fly fighter planes for the Navy, and Jesse wanted to serve a nation that wouldn’t even serve him if he walked into the wrong restaurant or bar. They were both gentlemen and patriots and saw one another as men, not as a white or black. “ IF USA: Thomas Hudner went on to have a distinguished career in the military until his retirement in 1973 and continued to be active with high profile veterans groups well after that. What do you think the impact of his relationship with Jesse Brown ultimately came down to?AM: “I think that snap decision he made to try to save Jesse actually altered his personality. The Tom Hudner of Dec. 3, 1950 was a rule follower, a man focused on his career, a man happy to follow orders and to follow others into battle. But the Tom Hudner who returned to the carrier Leyte on Dec. 7 was a different young man. He had stared death in the face and discovered that sometimes doing the right thing meant breaking the rules. He became a leader, and for the rest of his career, was a man who thought for himself.”IF USA: For you, what is the present day relevance of this story that took place 60 plus years ago?AM: “For one, we Americans should never have a ‘forgotten war.’ The very idea of neglecting our heroes runs contrary to the values that define us as Americans.”“Yes, the Korean War is an enigma. Maybe all we can envision is M.A.S.H. or Marilyn Monroe singing for the troops. There hasn’t been a good Korean War movie since Pork Chop Hill, and even that dates back to 1959.”“With Devotion, I tried to encapsulate the war without losing the human drama.”“We follow the aviators as they fly guns blazing into human waves of enemy troops, we follow the Marines on the ground, the men who were looking up as the flyboys strafed overhead, raining down sizzling shell cartridges. We put the reader into the Marines’ frozen foxholes at the Chosin Reservoir as they fight in temperatures so cold that their weapons freeze solid. And ultimately, we come home with the men, to show the cost of war—a young wife getting that dreaded telegram and how she finds the courage to go on.” So we see the war in the air, on the land, the sea, and the home front.“Weaving these stories together was like conducting an orchestra, trying to get 20 pieces to sound in unison. Fortunately, these young Americans shared a common spirit, the spirit of their great generation. When it comes to Korea, we often forget: the ‘Greatest Generation’ didn’t fight just one war.”“In our culture today, we’re obsessed with heroes from the pages of comic books. We’re telling our kids, ‘be like Spiderman!” or ‘Be like Batman!’ We forget that real superheroes once walked among us—and still do. There’s one up in Massachusetts named Tom Hudner. And another named Jesse Brown rests on a North Korean mountainside, waiting for the day when his flag- draped coffin arrives at Arlington. These men are among our most forgotten heroes from the forgotten war—it’s time to make them household names.”For more on Author Makos, see his sitewww.adammakos.com
Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship and Sacrifice (Ballantine Books) is the riveting account of one of the most fascinating episodes of the Korean War; a war that is too often overlooked and is mostly known about from the popular film and subsequent television series M*A*S*H.The heart of the book is the relationships between Ensign Jesse Brown, the first African-American aviator in the U.S. Navy and the well-known Naval Aviator Captain Thomas Hudner Jr. who was assigned to the same Fighter Squadron as Ensign Brown and whose heroism in The Battle of Chosin Reservoir (particularly as it related to his bravery with regard to Ensign Brown) earned him The Medal of Honor.With Devotion, NY Times bestselling author Adam Makos (A Higher Call), has put together a meticulously researched work that is intimate and epic–poignant and rousing. Mr. Makos was nice enough to conduct an email interview with In Flight’s Mark Rhodes about his work, the relationship between Brown and Hudner as well as the dangers of having a “forgotten” war. (Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead)IF USA: How did you come upon this piece of Korean War history?AM: “It all began as a chance encounter in a hotel lobby.”“I was a young magazine writer at the time, searching for my next big story, when I saw him at the history conference in Washington, D.C., just sitting across the hotel lobby. He was Captain Tom Hudner. His name is legendary in military circles, for what he did to try to save his wingman, Jesse Brown—an intentional crash landing, behind enemy lines. It was one of the most inspiring acts in military history. It hadn’t happened before, and it hasn’t happened since. It was so super-human that the captain of his aircraft carrier went on the record saying, ‘There has been no finer act of unselfish heroism in military history.’”“I just had to figure out how Tom became the kind of person who would take such a risk and why? What was it about Jesse Brown that would make Tom want to put his life on the line?”IF USA: At the time, how big of a deal was it that Jesse Brown became the Navy’s first African American aviator?AM: “While Jesse’s success was obviously noteworthy, the newspaper in Jesse’s hometown of Hattiesburg, Miss. refused to report that he had won his wings. The Navy, on the other hand, publically touted Jesse’s success, and even Tom Hudner had read about him prior to their first meeting in January 1950.”IF USA: Jesse Brown is hardly an obscure character in history but is probably overshadowed by some of the Tuskegee Airmen from WWII–is there a reason he is not better known as a pioneering figure in African American and even military history?AM: “I believe he’s little known because his life was cut short. He never came home to become the Navy’s first African American admiral or a congressman. He died on a North Korean mountainside at age 25. The Tuskegee Airmen were lucky to have one another in breaking the color barrier. Jesse, on the other hand, had to do it alone.”IF USA: Thomas Hudner Jr.’s background was wildly, almost comically opposed to Jesse Brown’s; having said that, were there some basic similarities between the two?AM: “Tom and Jesse came from different worlds but shared a common thread of patriotism. Both loved their country and wanted to serve it. Tom threw away his chance to go to Harvard, to inherit his family business, and tolive a comfy, silver-spoon sort of life to go fly fighter planes for the Navy, and Jesse wanted to serve a nation that wouldn’t even serve him if he walked into the wrong restaurant or bar. They were both gentlemen and patriots and saw one another as men, not as a white or black. “ IF USA: Thomas Hudner went on to have a distinguished career in the military until his retirement in 1973 and continued to be active with high profile veterans groups well after that. What do you think the impact of his relationship with Jesse Brown ultimately came down to?AM: “I think that snap decision he made to try to save Jesse actually altered his personality. The Tom Hudner of Dec. 3, 1950 was a rule follower, a man focused on his career, a man happy to follow orders and to follow others into battle. But the Tom Hudner who returned to the carrier Leyte on Dec. 7 was a different young man. He had stared death in the face and discovered that sometimes doing the right thing meant breaking the rules. He became a leader, and for the rest of his career, was a man who thought for himself.”IF USA: For you, what is the present day relevance of this story that took place 60 plus years ago?AM: “For one, we Americans should never have a ‘forgotten war.’ The very idea of neglecting our heroes runs contrary to the values that define us as Americans.”“Yes, the Korean War is an enigma. Maybe all we can envision is M.A.S.H. or Marilyn Monroe singing for the troops. There hasn’t been a good Korean War movie since Pork Chop Hill, and even that dates back to 1959.”“With Devotion, I tried to encapsulate the war without losing the human drama.”“We follow the aviators as they fly guns blazing into human waves of enemy troops, we follow the Marines on the ground, the men who were looking up as the flyboys strafed overhead, raining down sizzling shell cartridges. We put the reader into the Marines’ frozen foxholes at the Chosin Reservoir as they fight in temperatures so cold that their weapons freeze solid. And ultimately, we come home with the men, to show the cost of war—a young wife getting that dreaded telegram and how she finds the courage to go on.” So we see the war in the air, on the land, the sea, and the home front.“Weaving these stories together was like conducting an orchestra, trying to get 20 pieces to sound in unison. Fortunately, these young Americans shared a common spirit, the spirit of their great generation. When it comes to Korea, we often forget: the ‘Greatest Generation’ didn’t fight just one war.”“In our culture today, we’re obsessed with heroes from the pages of comic books. We’re telling our kids, ‘be like Spiderman!” or ‘Be like Batman!’ We forget that real superheroes once walked among us—and still do. There’s one up in Massachusetts named Tom Hudner. And another named Jesse Brown rests on a North Korean mountainside, waiting for the day when his flag- draped coffin arrives at Arlington. These men are among our most forgotten heroes from the forgotten war—it’s time to make them household names.”For more on Author Makos, see his sitewww.adammakos.com 