Edge of Valor

E
dge of Valor
is the fifth thriller by John J. Gobbell featuring the World War II exploits of Cdr. Todd Ingram, commanding officer of the destroyer USS
Maxwell
(DD 525) who saves his ship when it is hit by a kamikaze off Okinawa. For repairs, the ship pulls into Kerama Rhetto, Okinawa, where the men receive news of the war's end. Ingram expects to be shipped home like the rest of his crew but instead receives orders to fly to Manila, where he is met by Brig. Gen. Otis Dewitt, an Army buddy from his days on Corregidor who is now an intelligence aide to Gen. Richard K. Sutherland, chief of staff to General MacArthur. On Ingram's C-54 are sixteen Japanese senior military and civilian diplomats who meet with Sutherland to discuss formal surrender arrangements. Two days later the terms are settled and Ingram is working with one of the Japanese delegates to ensure that mines laid in Tokyo Bay are neutralized, allowing for safe passage of more than two hundred Allied ships. While Ingram is promised that he can attend the surrender ceremony on board the USS
Missouri
(BB 63), DeWitt, in concert with the State Department, has an ulterior motive and sends Ingram to Karafuto (Sakhalin Island, according to Soviet maps) to defuse a Soviet attack on Hokkaido, the northernmost home island of Japan. Ingram's old adversary, Edward Dezhnev, is the brigade commander responsible for laying siege to a Japanese holdout garrison in Toro, a natural jumping-off place for an attack on Hokkaido..

Also in Toro, DeWitt explains, is Walter Boring, a Red Cross representative holding two crates of overwhelming photographic evidence of Japan's experiments on live human beings in China. Ingram is expected to return with those crates, but how can he when Boring is being protected by the Japanese garrison in Toro, where Dezhnev and his troops stand ready to overpower them at any moment?

As his shipmates prepare to return to their loved ones, Ingram's war continues. Three weeks earlier he had been fighting the Japanese, and the Russians were supposed to be friends. Now he doesn't know who to trust.

Novels by John J. Gobbell

A Call to Colors

(Todd Ingram series)

Edge of Valor

The Neptune Strategy

When Duty Whispers Low

A Code for Tomorrow

The Last Lieutenant

The Brutus Lie

This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest.

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, MD 21402

© 2014 by John J. Gobbell

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gobbell, John J.

  
Edge of valor : a Todd Ingram novel / John J. Gobbell.

       
1 online resource.

Summary: “Edge of Valor is the fifth thriller by John J. Gobbell featuring the World War II exploits of Cdr. Todd Ingram. As commanding officer of the destroyer USS Maxwell, Ingram must save his ship when it is hit by a kamikaze on the last day of the war. After the war's end, Brig. Gen. Otis Dewitt, an Army buddy from Corregidor and now an intelligence aide on MacArthur's staff, takes Ingram to Manila on the same aircraft as sixteen Japanese diplomats. MacArthur's staff and the Japanese envoys negotiate the terms for Japan's surrender. DeWitt and the State Department then send Ingram to Sakhalin Island to defuse a Soviet attack on Hokkaido, where Ingram's old adversary, Edward Dezhnev, is the commander laying siege to a Japanese command in Toro. Also on Toro is Walter Boring, a Red Cross representative with two crates of overwhelming photographic evidence of Japan's experiments on humans in China. Ingram must return with those crates, but Boring is guarded by the Japanese garrison in Toro and is under attack by Dezhnev. Three weeks earlier Ingram had been fighting the Japanese, and the Russians were supposedly his friends. Now, he doesn't know who to trust”— Provided by publisher.

  
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

  
ISBN 978-1-61251-520-5 (epub)
  
1. Ingram, Todd (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Naval operations, American—Fiction. 3. United States. Navy—Officers—Fiction. I. Title.

  
PS3557.O16

  
813'.54—dc23

                                    
2014013570

Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).