Norman Beasley presents the story of Signius Wilhelm Poul Knudsen, a young man who came to the U.S. with an unshakeable faith in American opportunity, an eye for efficiency, and twenty dollars in his pocket. Four decades later, that man would become Lieutenant General William S. Knudsen, the mind behind our country’s production at the most crucial point in modern history.

Beginning and ending in the same small Oklahoma town, Robert Lovell's story could be that of almost any other member of ''The Greatest Generation'' in America's history. Told in frank yet innocent details, Lovell's story comes to life in more details than you would find in a history book.

This honest and touching memoir starts out with summers in the Scouts and faint radio murmurs of unrest in faraway places. As World War II creeps ever closer to the American consciousness, Lovell finds himself in basic training, shooting targets and learning codes.

Stationed in Germany during the latter part of the war, Lovell turns 19 just weeks before V-E Day. By the time he turns 20 -- just ten years after the start of the story, Lovell has faced more than most people do in a lifetime.

A first-hand memoir of one of the most pivotal decades in the history of the United States, Unlikely Warrior was put to paper at the insistence of the author's grown children. Its lessons, however, can benefit all of us.