FORCED BACK INTO BATTLE
In The Last Lieutenant, Navy Lieutenant Todd Ingram escaped the horrors of Corregidor by a thirty-six foot launch and made it with ten of his men through the Japanese-held Philippine archipelago to Darwin Australia. But horror follows on horror as he was cut off from his sweetheart and with the enemy after him, had to leave Army Nurse Helen Durand behind on Mindanao. Now, in San Francisco, he agonizes over Helen now fighting for the resistance on Mindanao. During this, Todd becomes fast friends with Senior Lieutenant Eduard Dezhnev, the Soviet Naval attaché' to the USSR's consulate on San Francisco's swanky Divsidero Street.
But things go badly for the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific's Solomon Islands. Seeking seasoned leaders, Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance orders Ingram to the destroyer U.S.S. Howell as executive officer. Right back in the fighting, Ingram is caught in two of the epic naval battles off Guadalcanal: the Battle of Cape Esperance and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
Amidst this, Ingram reaches for Helen but her rescue is hampered by underhanded espionage activities of Dezhnev, a man Ingram grew to trust and admire. With the war at its apex, Todd Ingram puts his life on the line not only for the girl he loves, but for his country, and for a world so perilously close to collapse.