Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit and Unbroken:

Finish Forty and Home is a triumph of intimate history, following the author's seventeen-year-old airman father as he goes to war in a forgotten but fiercely contested corner of World War II. Through meticulous research and lyrical prose, Scearce captures the grim grind of the Pacific war, life and death in a battered bomb squadron, and the tumultuous experiences of a B-24 radioman and his crew. Finish Forty and Home is a treasure: poignant, thrilling and illuminating."

Dogpatch Express

Shot Down December 20, 1943

Killed in action:

1st Lt. George W. Smith, Pilot

2nd Lt. John E. Lowry, Jr, Co-pilot

2nd Lt. Carl A. Mortenson, Navigator

1st Lt. Ralph P. Ortiz, Bombardier

T/Sgt Clarence T. Sopko, Engineer

S/Sgt Jesse H. Hudman, Ass’t Engineer

T/Sgt Roy T. Gearon, Radio Operator

S/Sgt Arnold J. Paradise, Ass’t Radio Operator

S/Sgt Carl N. Dell, Armorer/Gunner

S/Sgt Earl D. Nielson, Gunner

Finish Forty and Home

The Untold World War II Story of B-24s in the Pacific

  • Main Selection of the History/Military Book Club

  • Selected for "Best of the Best" from University Presses by American Library Association

  • Winner - Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference Book Manuscript Competition

  • “Powerful and moving.” —World War II Magazine

  • “A work of art…highly recommended.” —The Journal of America’s Military Past

  • Phil Scearce’s precise narrative and illuminating footnotes convey the facts. His father’s recollection early in the book states a more plain-spoken truth: “All of us prayed selfish prayers… God, just get me back on the ground again.” —Air & Space Magazine

Foreword by Col. Jesse E. Stay, USAF, Ret, Squadron Commander

We fought a small war in the Central Pacific. Our numbers were not large but the percentage of men and planes lost was great. When I arrived in Hawaii in October of 1942, I was billeted in a barracks with the officers of four combat crews, sixteen of us in all. When I left the Pacific for home in March of 1945, there were four of us still alive and two of the four, Russell Phillips and Louis Zamperini, had spent two years in a Japanese prison camp. In a five-week period flying bombing missions over the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, we lost four crews and five airplanes out of eleven in the 42nd Squadron.

I finished my forty missions in January, 1945. I was released as Squadron Commander and returned home on March 10, 1945, twenty-nine months after leaving.

This history brings back memories of the dear friends who gave their lives in this war and is a tribute to them and to all those, like Sergeant Herman Scearce, who laid their lives on the line and were blessed to survive. It is a comfort to know that this record has been written in remembrance of these patriots and of this part of our war in the Pacific.

Al Marston, gunner; Herman Scearce, radio operator; Jack Yankus, flight engineer.

Oahu, 1943

Don’t give me a B-24

She’s just a ground-lovin’ whore

She’ll whine, moan, and wheeze

and she’ll clobber the trees.

Don’t give me a B-24.

from Give Me Operations

Army Air Corps ballad

The old warrior signs the book for his grandson.