MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

About the Book

In April, 1943, America is in a struggle for survival, fighting in a global war, and such is the desperation of her enemies that the conflict promises to be long and bloody and deadly. Like most young men of his day, Lieutenant Matthew Hill has seen that his duty lies in serving his country and has joined the Navy, where he is assigned to an escort destroyer and then sent to the Pacific Theater. Though a navigation officer by training, and a junior one at that, he inherits the command of a company of Marines tasked with scouting the many atolls north of the Solomon chain of islands. At first, the Japanese are nowhere to be found, but in the course of their mission, the destroyer crew comes across a derelict yacht, which Matt and a few of his Marines are ordered to board and search. While on the yacht, Matt´s destroyer is torpedoed and thus the squad, led by the best Gunnery Sergeant in the U. S. Marines, is forced into a harsh struggle against the Japanese in the unforgiving tropics far from friends and comrades. In an epic battle, the men defeat the submarine which sunk their ship and then take refuge on a nearby atoll. To their astonishment, they find that the yacht is carrying a huge cache of gold, enough to make them all very wealthy, but the stuff is absolutely useless to them in their present circumstances and so they simply bury it and go about the business of survival. The Japanese mount a search for them and Matt and the Marines are forced to fight, but in doing so, they eventually capture enough fuel to get them back to their lines. Unfortunately, one of the men mutinies because of the lure of the gold and Matt is forced to deal with the deadly situation by himself and thus, the great crisis is precipitated in his life which forces him to seek the Divine comfort which only Jesus Christ can provide. He and the Marines are eventually able to leave the island and start back to their home base of Guadalcanal, but in their travels, they find the original owners of the yacht, a woman and four children, stranded on a deserted island. They pass through many more adventures and battles on their way back to Guadalcanal, even rescuing the woman´s father, but they all finally arrive safely back in Pearl Harbor. Having come through his crisis of fire, Matt has discovered the only true treasure in this world, a personal relationship to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

About the Author

The author is a graduate of Texas A&M University and a retired engineer. He was born in Texas and has lived most of his life in the Lone Star State. He is a prolific writer and has completed ten works of fiction. Though all of his other novels have been adventure stories or science fiction, in the spring of 2006 he was inspired by the insane press coverage of Vice President Cheney's hunting accident and attempted a satire. The efforts of the MSM to Get Bush! provided a surfeit of material to lampoon and thus Calypso Greener was born.