Gene Fitzgerald is 19 years old when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. He drops out of college and hurriedly enlists to do his patriotic duty, only to discover that the military is not made up of heroes like John Wayne and Gary Cooper. Boot camp is an eye-opener and Staff Sergeant Thomas's heavy handed tactics bond the flamboyantly Italian Sportelli, the timid Cannady, Gene, and backwoods 'stiller' Jeb into a rock solid team as they frustrate his attempts to turn them into model soldiers. Boot Camp is an adventure the four of them manage to survive, and they find themselves aboard a troop ship on their way to 'the front'.

War is not boot camp. Gene, as squad leader, finds that death is all too real, all too ugly, and doesn't only happen to the enemy or to soldiers, for that matter. But even on the battlefield, there is humor. Jeb's skill with 'corn mash' and his backpack still come in handy in the trenches as his generosity brings in some handy aid from grateful recipients of his gifts in the fierce battles they face.

Slowly, the teenagers who stumbled off that Greyhound bus into the wee-hours darkness of boot camp become men, matured by the sights, the battles, the personal encounters of war. In the face of tanks and overwhelming odds, men find bravery within them, not the bravery of the Hollywood screen but the from-the-gut bravery of men faced with the need to survive and to help their buddies survive. Squad Leader is a huge responsibility, and Gene needs all of his skills and reflexes to keep himself and his men alive.

The book begins with the humor of those teens who face off against the military authority and win, and as the story unfolds, we see them grow up, shaped by the hard lessons of the battlefield but managing to preserve the essence of the innocent teens who signed up for war in a fervor of patriotism. War has changed them, but it has certainly not destroyed them.

A powerful coming of age story that blends the humor that can only exist on the battlefield as well as the real horrors of that war, this book will appeal to veterans and young adults curious about WWII, both.