One damned island after another

All I can offer is this was a book in our family library, but because of a horrific fire, we lost all of our family's physical history. My father is named in the book, Technical Sgt. Carlyle Connor Elrod. He was the top turit gunner in a B-17 and the book is a history of his unit, the Seventh Air Force in World War II. His plane was shot down during the 1st Wake Island Raids in 1941-1942. He survived the crash and given a medical discharge in 1942. I know the unit trained prior to being sent to the Pacific at a now extinct base near Soap Lake in the State of Washington. Dad always said they had to build their own runways. One additional note, sometime in the mid 60's, my Mother went to a book signing for a former Japanese soldier who published his "side of the story" for the flip side of this book, again, everything was lost.