Events

Michigan Union Wolverine Room

In the fall of 1944, German flak shredded a U.S. bomber in the skies over Austria. Four crew parachuted from the burning aircraft, but six spiraled five miles to their deaths. Among the dead was tail gunner Delbert Trueman. It had been his first mission. His remains would not return home for more than four years.

In the years following World War II, Trueman’s journey home would be repeated 170,000 times, as poignantly described in “The Last Full Measure,” a powerful work blending one family’s story with the history of a monumental military effort.

Kim Clarke masterfully weaves this emotional journey and deeply personal family drama together with the larger story of the army’s Return the Dead Program that brought home more than 170,000 fallen soldiers from around the world. Here are accounts of the Japanese-American soldier who began the war in an internment camp and led a small unit that searched France and Austria for dead Americans; the civilian embalmer who processed some 10,000 soldiers; the captain of a transport ship that ferried 6,500 caskets at a time across the Atlantic; the military escorts who accompanied the dead on the final legs of their trips home; and the career soldier who managed the operation.

Solemn and heartrending, but also inspiring, “The Last Full Measure” completes the war story of those who died in foreign lands during World War II. It stands as a tribute to those who gave the last full measure in battle and to the unsung heroes who gave their own full measure to bring them home.

Author Kim Clarke will talk about her research and her journey in writing the book. Q&A session will follow the lecture.