I write to you from my phone. I’d traveled to see my sister, and spent the night to make the most of our time. During the wait for her yesterday, I discovered my laptop charger wasn’t working… so I’m improvising.

Rather than a long post, you get a short review and high recommendation. This book is a fantastic read – compelling and thrilling, although solidly grounded in research. Read the author’s lol notes at the end to gain a real appreciation for what she did to ensure this book captured the reality of the story. It could have been dry, or overly histrionic and it is neither.

I was impressed by the take on a story from a non-American viewpoint (like the other recent book I very much enjoyed, Hunter in the Shadows, an Australian’s story of his time in Vietnam. That book was not nearly as well-edited as this, but still worth finding and reading in my opinion). The Malay, the Dayaks, all are brought fully to life and a fascinating glimpse it is into a world and culture of another era. They risked their own lives, and those of their precious children, to take in the downed airmen. In the end, they went to war for those brave boys so far from home and almost utterly dependent on them.

It is an extraordinary story. I read it almost in a sitting like a novel. I’ll re-read it slowly to savor the courage and joy of humanity from time to time.

“The downed American airmen in Borneo were now clustered in two groups, the four navy men—Bob Graham, Jim Shepherd, Al Harms and Robby Robbins—and two army men, John Nelson and Franny Harrington, with the Mongans, and the remaining five army airmen—Phil Corrin, Dan Illerich, Jim Knoch, Eddy Haviland and Tom Capin—with Makahanap four or five days’ walk farther southeast.

When it was just a question of hosting John Nelson and Franny Harrington, the Mongans had wanted them to stay with them indefinitely. But now, with food so short and the number of fugitives in their care tripled, the Mongans were not opposed to some of the four navy men making the trip south; they also resigned themselves to losing John and Franny. Leaving the two sickest navy men (Harms and Robbins) behind, John, Franny, Jim Shepherd and Bob Graham set off to join the group with Makahanap around March 19.

More than a month earlier, Makahanap had become increasingly anxious about the safety of the five downed airmen with him. His campaign of encouraging the natives to oppose the occupiers had predictably led the Japanese to send another patrol upriver from Malinau. And though Pangeran Lagan and his men had eliminated the patrol with their usual dispatch, Makahanap had come to feel that his American charges were in too much danger if they stayed in Long Berang. Not only was Long Berang now a Japanese target, but there were far too many people in town who knew the airmen were there. The district officer wearily concluded it was time for the Yanks to move again.

Where should they go next? He decided on a Christian longhouse upriver at Bang Biau that was headed by his friend Sudai Agung. He knew he could count on Sudai and his people to take good care of the airmen. Phil and the four other crewmen, accompanied by Makahanap, Yakal, Binum and two of her friends, left Long Berang early on February 10.

After Makahanap settled the airmen in a nearby longhouse for the night, he said he was leaving for other parts of the Krayan to organize the natives into a guerrilla force similar to what he had in Mentarang District. Phil, who hoped that at least some of the rumors he had heard about U.S. forces being in Borneo were true, gave William a note to pass along to any Allied forces he might meet.

The next morning, Yakal led Phil and his party on foot in the rain. On the third day, they arrived at Bang Biau. It was Valentine’s Day. Yakal hunted and killed a wild boar, which made a welcome addition to everybody’s dinner at the longhouse. Phil, Dan, Jim, Eddy and Tom settled easily into life at Bang Biau, though Phil kept hoping that Franny and John would join them soon. By now, Phil and his men felt comfortable with the Lun Dayeh way of life. They had reached the point of enjoying tree mushrooms, and Phil even confessed to liking roasted grasshopper, which he said tasted like lobster or crabmeat.

There were still things that annoyed the airmen, such as the roosters that woke them before dawn, and the fleas and lice that found their way into the seams of the Yanks’ clothing. But the longhouse people were almost embarrassingly generous and considerate hosts. When they realized that the Yanks had run out of cigarettes, tobacco packets started arriving in such quantities that the Yanks could have opened their own smoke shop.

The Kemah Injil church and its activities played a big role in Bang Biau. Little cards with colored illustrations of Bible stories that the airmen remembered from their Sunday school days were prominently displayed, and Sunday services were the main event of the week. The first Sunday after the Yanks’ arrival, the Bang Biau worshippers offered several prayers for the airmen’s benefit, including one that asked God to cure Phil’s occasional bouts of diarrhea. The Lun Dayeh also asked God to forgive them for killing the Japanese. These Christians told the airmen that they worried that killing even such bad people as the Japanese might keep them from getting to heaven. The airmen were touched by the degree of the community’s commitment to its church nearly three years after the last foreign missionary had been taken away.”

— The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II by Judith M. Heimann
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