I’ve known JD Merritt for over ten years. During this time we have spent countless hours discussing his life during the war in the Philippines. All this time, JD was researching and writing his book depicting his experiences during the war. First, he served with the 27^th Bomb Group and later with a Provisional Infantry Battalion on Bataan’s frontlines.

When JD sent me several unpublished chapters of his book, ADAPT OR DIE, to review, I found a virtual cornucopia of never- before-published material - personal combat to surviving 24/7 bombing and strafing – there are miracles and untold history to retribution and atrocities by the rapacious Japanese.

Besides these gripping stories of tragedy, intrigue and reprisal, there are three heart- rending tales of love in wartime. This book portrays the author’s adventures in such evocative detail that I can hardly wait to read the published book. Knowing JD well and his zeal for truth in history, every event is told with utmost candor.

This book takes you through the spectrum of emotions: the profound sadness and the comedies of the human condition. Living in a tent on Ft. McKinley’s golf course before the war, to the fighting on Bataan, then a patient in Hospital #2, to working as a stevedore for the Japanese on Pier 7 in the Port Area Detail... Then came the horrible voyage in the odorous cargo hold of the Noto Maru and the living hell of Hanawa, Japan. ADAPT AND DIE is an unabashed and unapologetic account of a soldier who served America with honor.

Fred Baldassarre – Webmaster, Battling Bastards of Bataan.

For your copy of ADAPT OR DIE

contact JD Merritt at jdnlin@comcast.net

or you may call him at 1 239-283-2832

JD wrote this letter to his parents from Bataan. It was his

reward for killing two Japanese snipers.