THE FALL.(When I Was a Young Man)

On October 17, 1944, John Kerrey, an American soldier serving in the Philippines, died for no particularly good reason. That morning, Kerrey, who had survived the fall of Bataan and two and a half years of guerrilla fighting on Luzon, had set out with four other servicemen from their command post to rendezvous with an American submarine on Dibut Bay. Kerrey's companions travelled by land and made it safely to the submarine, but Kerrey chose to go in an outrigger with a Filipino guide. It is unclear whether he was killed by his guide, or fell to the Japanese, or simply drowned in the rough sea beyond the bay.

At the start of "When I Was a Young Man" (James H. ...