ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Fascination with a place led to this book. Thanks to Nancy Kelley, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Long Island Chapter, for assigning me over a decade ago to advocate for Plum Island’s protection due to its important role in a magnificent coastal system.

In 2016, my then-colleague Randy Parsons handed me a copy of A World Unto Itself: The Remarkable History of Plum Island. Reading the excellent chapter by historian Amy Kasuga Folk about the Koehler court-martial, I was astonished that such a significant, virtually unknown trial had taken place in eastern Long Island. I am grateful to Amy for supporting my effort to add a lawyer’s perspective to her work. Amy cared about Ben Koehler’s tragic fate in the same way that I did, as a writer trying to get beyond the facts and inhabit the inner world of a man who left scant record of his emotions.

Many thanks to editors David Lamb and Cathy Suter, and other readers who provided valuable feedback: Ruth Ann Bramson, John Lacy Clark, Jennifer Clarke, Chris Elias, Marcy Friedman, Scott Fain, Bruce Horwith, Dan Kornstein, Ann Northrop, and John Turner. Thanks to Gordon Bliss, Chris Zeeman, and Bolling Smith of the Coast Defense Study Group for providing information about Fort Terry. Special thanks to Mary Dimmick Elke, Sophia’s granddaughter and Ben’s grand-niece, for providing letters, photographs, and recollections. I am grateful to Greg Jacob, an ex-Marine and former advocate for the Service Women’s Action Network, who is a tenacious colleague in the effort to preserve Plum Island, as are my friends at Save the Sound, Chris Cryder, Louise Harrison, and Leah Schmalz.

Wayne and June Marty generously led me around LeMars, Iowa. I’ll never forget coffee with Kay O. in Hawarden after finding her son in one of his fields across the Iowa border in South Dakota.

My gratitude to Liz Parker, Monica Banks, Philip Schultz, and Mary Landergan for their efforts to see the book published, and to Lucy Cutler, Paul D’Andrea, Stuart Lowrie, Monica Wagner, Peter Strauss, Jeremy Kessler, Logan Schendel, Sally Behr Schendel, and Peter and Suzanne Clifton Walsh for their encouragement and advice. Thanks to Emily Herrick and Michael Denslow for all the dinners and dog walks while I wrote an early draft, and appreciation to my wonderful publisher, Pauline Neuwirth (introduced to me by Priscilla Garston), editor Colin Bertram, and the capable staff of Neuwirth & Associates.

This book would not have been possible without the help of librarians and researchers across the country, who ably steward the records of our past.

Anciently formed Plum Island may have launched the book, but concerns with social justice kept me going. For his example, and all that he taught me the year I was fortunate to clerk for him, I pay tribute to the late Hon. Harold H. Greene, a refugee from Nazi Germany who advanced the fight to end racism as a key drafter of the Voting Rights Act. He made the dignity of every individual central to many acts and decisions as head of the District of Columbia’s court system and a federal district court judge. By demonstrating that a public servant could embody the highest ideals, he gave this ex-reporter an enduring foundation for hope.

Last but hardly least, deepest gratitude to my son, Justin Melville DePay, for his creativity, open-mindedness, patience, and love.