Sally Mott Freeman to sign books at Biblion Sept. 3

Sally Mott Freeman, author of "The Jersey Brothers: A Missing Naval Officer in the Pacific and His Family's Quest to Bring Him Home," will sign books from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 3, at Biblion in Lewes. The book combines war history, thriller and family saga in a harrowing, often heartbreaking true tale of World War II. The driving intensity of the book comes from the fact that the family in this saga is the author's own.

Freeman also will appear at the History Book Festival, debuting Saturday, Oct. 7, at multiple venues in Lewes. Sales from the book signing will benefit the History Book Festival.

Freeman has a strong bond with Lewes."We have had a second home in Shipcarpenter Square in Lewes for over 20 years, and with our ever-expanding family, now actually have another home across the street from the first one," said Freeman. "Our four children spent their summers here. In fact, one of them was married at the Canalfront Park - the first wedding ceremony held there! And now their kids are coming to Lewes every year too. We are here mostly in the summer, but have had family Thanksgivings here as well. We just love it, and come as often as our work allows.

"As a part-time Lewes resident, I was already deeply connected to this community, and as board chair of The Writer's Center in Bethesda with a book-length nonfiction work in progress, I also had strong connections to the regional literary community," she said. "Since 'The Jersey Brothers' debuted in May, the timing for participating in Lewes' first History Book Festival was perfect! I was delighted to be asked."

In writing the book, Freeman describes an almost unimaginable scenario. In the chaos right before the fall of Manila, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters ordered a hospital evacuation, but of all Army patients - somehow overlooking that fact that there were Navy patients there as well. The abandoned Navy wounded included the author's Uncle Barton. After 10 years of research, Freeman is able to document his nightmare as a Japanese POW, along with the agonized search by her father and a second uncle, both naval officers, to find out the fate of their beloved half-brother. (Note: no spoilers ahead.)

Freeman was interviewed about her extensive research for "Jersey Brothers," her first book. She said, "I was electrified when I read an interview of a retired Navy nurse at that same hospital about her recollections of the night Manila fell to the Japanese. 'What about the Navy patients, what's supposed to happen to them?' she remembered asking. 'Nothing,' came the reply. 'So they just sat there,' she told the interviewer."

Bill Mott, the author's father and middle one of the three Jersey brothers, worked in Naval Intelligence. Eventually becoming an admiral and judge advocate general, he was responsible for running the first Map Room in President Roosevelt's White House. The older brother, Benny, was the anti-aircraft and gunnery officer on the storied USS Enterprise. In a cruel irony, Barton was stationed in the Philippines because Bill arranged for his assignment as a naval supply officer to protect him, believing it would be relatively safe. Freeman paints a terrifying and often sickening picture of what her uncle endured when that plan went terribly awry.

There are many heroes in Freeman's book and, of course, many who are not. Among the latter, she writes about an American named Courtney Whitney whose deliberate self-serving actions ultimately resulted in suffering and death for American prisoners of war.

Does Freeman consider Courtney Whitney a villain? "It was hard to conclude otherwise once all the facts were assembled - which, by the way, came primarily from MacArthur's own archives maintained in Norfolk, Va.," she said. "Whitney's every crafty memoranda delaying the rescue mission are on file there. It was further suspect that he was not a trained military man, yet became one of MacArthur's most powerful staff members - and was ultimately promoted to brigadier general - all thanks to endless cunning and manipulative flattery of his boss."

Because Whitney's wealth depended on Filipino gold mines in which he also had MacArthur invest, Freeman explains that he wanted to block anything that could potentially interfere with the triumphant restoration of MacArthur's reputation and his lucrative return to the Philippines. "Whitney's every effort to scuttle that rescue mission not only revealed stunning callousness, but it also constituted a stunning conflict of interest as well," she said.

In the course of telling her sweeping story, the author re-creates intimate scenes with some of the most famous figures in the war. The very personal bond that existed between her father and both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt is endearing. Less so is the mental picture of Winston Churchill being briefed by Bill as the prime minister sat naked in his tub, smoking his cigar. On a family level, Freeman's portrait of Barton's mother - her grandmother - includes heart-wrenching entries from the diary of an amazing woman who waged her own war to uncover her son's whereabouts.