Your American History courses probably included a paragraph on Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz and "island hopping" during World War II. The back story IS the story of America's success in the Pacific theater.

Enter: Mary Sears, raised in Boston and a Radcliffe graduate, went on to work in the area of oceanography. Her story is not unlike that of Katherine Johnson or Rosalind Franklin, women who succeeded in their chosen fields but were not given the credit they deserved for their unfailing choice to do the best work possible under the pernicious belief that women were not up to the job.

Mary Sears was given an opportunity to work on a research ship off the coast of Peru, learning about the world of plankton. When World War II broke out, she returned to the United States and before long was hired at the Hydrographic Office as it attempted the monumental task of creating new maps of the Atlantic AND the Pacific since America was in a two-pronged war. Equipment was outdated and personnel was difficult to find. The course of the war evolved; speed rather than accuracy became the priority.

In April 1943 Mary Sears attended her first meeting of the Joint Chiefs Subcommittee on Oceanography and quickly learned that when it came to oceanography, the navy was seemingly oblivious to just how much it didn't know..

The reader will experience the harrowing war experiences on the islands of Tarawa, of Palau, of Iwo Jima, and of Okinawa in clear and compelling detail that never gets too technical for the non-oceanographer. Rather, the reader will come to know the hazards of coral reefs, the tides and the volcanic rock as American soldiers fight so many elements to ultimately win against Japan.

The next time a movie such as Midway or The Sands of Iwo Jima is broadcast, I will see Mary Sears and her small contingent of oceanographers doing everything possible to guarantee success for our side.