Cushing's War, The Quest is the second in a two book series, Moving Like Fish in the Sea. This World War II tale is based on the forgotten heroics of Walter Mackay Cushing, the intrepid father of guerrilla resistance against the Japanese in the Philippines and posthumously recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross medal for heroism in the Philippine Islands during World War II.
In April 1942, 60,000 Filipino-American troops surrendered to Japanese forces at the Battle of Bataan. Grim rumors of Japanese mistreatment of prisoners of war reach guerrilla leader Major Cushing, at his headquarters in the mountains of Northern Luzon. Cushing Travels south to investigate. Ethnically half Mexican with tropical sun-darkened skin, he secretely passes as a Filipino. He learns the deadly conditions in the prison camps are worse than he could have imagined. But with the Japanese imposed radio blackout, he had no way of communicating his findings to allied command in Australia. Upon hearing a rumor that a shortwave radio had been stashed in a light house, undertakes a dangerous mission to recover it. His confidence from his previous successes is put to the test.