"Look what happened to our British friends at Gallipoli. Of the first two hundred men that landed at Cape Helles, only twelve made the beach alive." As early as 1919, Marine General "Howling Mad" Holland Smith knew the US would likely be involved in another World War against Japan. He feared that it was only a matter of time. His eyes turned to the Pacific islands as the most logical theatre of war. How, he wondered, could the Marines possibly land troops and keep them alive long enough to fight? In 1928, the killer Okeechobee Hurricane strikes Florida. Don Roebling, grandson of the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, is determined to invent a rescue boat that can conquer the swamps, the flooding and the debris strewn terrain to save lives! Together, these two Americans will face nightmares of red tape, engineering challenges, corruption and personal set-backs to train and equip the US Marines for their greatest challenges of WWII, and shape world history.