In New York City in 1939, neither eighteen-year-old Jack -Jake- Jacobson nor his comrade Murray -Duke- Davison had any intention of joining the military. Their sights were set on playing club dates in what Duke called the -upholstered sewers- of Manhattan. Jake, a comic, and Duke, a jazz trumpet player, were amateur entertainers looking for their big break, not men in uniform readying themselves for war.
That all changed after Pearl Harbor. Newly inspired, Jake and Duke decided to act honorably and enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. En route to their first assignment in North Africa, Jake...