Beyond Valor: A World War II Story of Extraordinary Heroism, Sacrificial Love, and a Race Against Time
By: Jon Erwin, William Doyle / Narrated By: Zach Hoffman, Jon Erwin
Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
Very very good, but dang! It could’ve been Great!
You want a Listen about the horrors of war? Here you go!
You want a Listen about a true Hero? Here you go!
You want a Listen about resilience? Here you go!
You wanna hear waaaaay in-depth about the Cuban Missile Crisis which had nooooothing to do with Red Ewing? Here ya go…. wait! whazzaaa?!
Yup. There’s truly a LOT to be amazed and horrified and amazed again by here in Beyond Valor. There’s Red Ewing’s upbringing in a coal town where his father died young, leaving him, the eldest, to help put meager amounts of bread on the table to help his mother and six siblings. He learned how to work hard at an early age, learned to not dream of what he couldn’t have, learned to be grateful for everything he got/earned.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked, he wanted to be a flying ace, but alas, he could NOT land a plane and washed out. Tho’ very disappointed, he willingly took to learning to be a radio operator and was placed in a crew on a B-29. This crew joined others in the firebombing of Tokyo, the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay. On what would be his last mission, as he was dropping a phosphorus bomb down a tube, it malfunctioned and shot back up, phosphorus exploding onto Red. Though totally engulfed in flames and ostensibly in the throes of death, Red prayed to God and heard the words Go! Go! Go!
Suddenly the agony stopped, and he found the courage and wherewithal to search for the bomb, tuck it into his right side, and he staggered to the cockpit, politely asking one of the pilots to open the window where he pitched the flaming bomb overboard. The plane had been filling with smoke making the pilot unable to see the controls, and the flames had come extreeeeemely close to 800 lbs. of bombs onboard. With that one act, Red saved not only the crew but also the entire formation of B-29s which were flying close enough to each other to explode in turn.
Breaking protocol (Each crew/plane HAD to get to Japan/could NOT turn away on any account), the crew immediately flew to Iwo Jima to get Red help. And then author Jon Ewing dashes through how Curtis LeMay and Harry Truman scrambled to get Red the Medal of Honor. This is done in remarkably few sentences whereas the Publisher’s Summary (NO! I did NOT read it before I bought it, but I did before this review, so huzzah for meeee!) makes it sound like there’s going to be this glorious escapade involving a gazillion dedicated men and an awesome smash and grab. Not so, but even without reading the Summary I must admit that the lead up in the narrative made it sound like: Wow, something remarkable is going to play out here. Alas, it does not.
Also not playing out? Just how supportive his new wife of barely three months was. When other wives were heading to hospitals and seeing how burned and maimed their husbands were, they just gasped and twisted wedding bands from their fingers, leaving the crippled and disfigured to face the future alone. Instead, Ewing rushes us through how she stuck with him, never thought even a second of not being by Red’s side, and then the rest of Red’s life is ruuuuushed through.
Cuz the man made it, tho’ he was indeed horribly maimed. I found it horrific that the phosphorus that was so deeply embedded in his wounds would smoke and burst into flames for aaaages afterwards whilst he was in the hospital. But again, this is said with a few words and then the story picks up on something else. Say, like the Cuban Missile Crisis and how close to Nuclear War America and the Soviet Union came.
Yes, listen to a LOT about Curtis LeMay and how he was a hero then kinda off his rocker. Listen to how Hap Arnold had five heart attacks during the war. Listen to the experiences of a POW in Japan. Listen to what happened to Red’s fellow crew members (Okay, okay, I DID like all those tales!), and listen to how hard it is to be a Medal of Honor recipient, of carrying the Hero’s torch whilst being a mere mortal.
Plus wrap it all up with 7 Prayers that saved our Nation. Now before you say that people Left of Center don’t believe in God or Prayer and hate the Flag, it’s not that AT ALL! My Mom, Sister, and I send prayers of gratitude with a special request now and again for those who need healing every single day at 3-4 pm. It’s not that, it’s just that the last incredibly huuuuge chunk o’ time is dedicated to prayers Presidents spoke during their times in Office. So unnecessary, especially when I want to hear how Red managed to use his left arm, when I want to hear about how loved he was by his family, how they adjusted. But no.
Now as far as the reading goes, Jon Ewing (Red’s grandson) does the first part, his own experiences and his grandpa Red’s funeral (And how honored Red was by the entire community and how everyone stopped as the hearse and police motorcycles went by). And then he ends it with his experiences of trying to find out about his grandpa Red’s doings, about just how he earned that incredible medal. But the bulk of the narration is done by Zach Hoffman, and he does a bang-up job. It should be noted, however, that it’s quite a relief that there are so few women in this story, as Hoffman does a near-falsetto for each one. Huzzah for the most part, ice pick to the ear for the women.
So all in all a grand story of courage, but it’s one that coulda been sooo much better if it was solely about Red. His upbringing, yes. The war, yes. But also after the catastrophic injuries and how he navigated Life with his wife by his side.
Still, who doesn’t love a Hero. Too many get called that, but very few deserve it.
Red Ewing? Oh yesssss, he deserves it!
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