Victory and Homecoming

A father's odyssey. A mother's strength. A son's story. 


--- Victory and Homecoming is Book 3 of the trilogy, Wilber's War, which chronicles the story of two ordinary Americans, Wilber and Norma Bradt, during an extraordinary time, World War II. It offers fresh insight--deeply personal--into the historic conflict as it was fought by the U.S. Army in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and The Philippines and by a family on the home front. It is an epic tale of duty, heroism, love, and human frailty. The story is told in large part in Wilber's own words in a sensitive editing of his some 700 richly detailed wartime letters. The work offers a detailed and nuanced view into the complexities faced by one family and by U.S. society as a whole when it ships soldiers off to war and asks loved ones to forge new lives on the home front. The trilogy is the recipient of three Finalist Awards (Benjamin Franklin of the IBPA, IndieFAB of Foreword Reviews, and Indie Excellence).


--- "Inherently fascinating read...deftly crafted...very highly recommended for both community and academic library…collections" [Midwest Book Review, June 2015]. "Hale Bradt relates a story that could resonate with the multitude of families who also sacrificed a father, a husband, or son [to war]" [Foreword Reviews, Fall 2015]. 


--- Victory and Homecoming (360 pp., 18 maps, 82 illustrations, 2 charts), follows Wilber into new combat in New Guinea and Luzon in the Philippines as Norma makes a bold move to readjust her life. On Luzon, Wilber experiences numerous "special times," three of which each merit him a Silver Star. After the Luzon combat, preparations for the invasion of Japan begin, a guaranteed bloodbath. The story concludes with Wilber's voyage to Japan in the occupation force, his return home, his death, and its aftermath. 


--- Author Hale Bradt, Wilber and Norma's son, shares his parents' stories with insight, compassion, and a wealth of carefully selected images that bring their experiences to life. Visiting in the 1980s the battlefields where his father fought, he adds another uniquely American voice to this rich story: that of a son seeking to unravel the tangled threads of his family's legacy.