Four young paratroopers have been deployed to Italy. It is the late spring of 1944, just days before D-day. Their mood is festive, and after all that training and a long boat ride from the states, they are anxious to join the fighting. Unfortunately, more training awaits them, along with a sojourn in Rome. It isn't until August of '44, after they have sampled the wine and the women of Italy, that they finally get orders to the front. The truth is, trained as "pathfinders," they will lead the invasion into Southern France. When they are dropped in the wrong place the action will keep you turning the pages, as the boys become men and help turn the tide of the victory over the Nazis. Francis McManus, himself a Silver Star recipient for his service in World War II, a member of the Greatest Generation, passed away in 1996.

He was a Pathfinder, like the men in the story, so this fictional account is as real as any writer could have made it - he was there - but he always insisted that this was just a story. Members of his family have prepared this book for publication in his memory.