In 1945, United States Marine Sergeant Harris C. Ayres of the Twenty-Third Marines etches an enigmatic message on his canteen as the battle for Iwo Jima rages around him. Decades later, author and former marine George Derryberry finds the same canteen, still bearing Ayres's undelivered message. The discovery sparks an intense investigation, as an intrigued Derryberry reconstructs the life and service of Harris Ayres and struggles to decipher the meaning behind the canteen's message. Through interviews with surviving members of the Twenty-Third Marines and painstaking studies of military...
In 1945, United States Marine Sergeant Harris C. Ayres of the Twenty-Third Marines etches an enigmatic message on his canteen as the battle for Iwo Ji...