GATHERING STORIES and HONORING OUR VETERANS’ SERVICE

Rona Simmons is an award-winning author of historical fiction and nonfiction, focusing on the Second World War, including The Other Veterans of World War II, A Gathering of Men, and No Average Day.

Her inspiration stems from the service of both her father and father-in-law who were pilots in the European Theater and the many veterans she has been privileged to meet since launching her writing career. What’s more, she is the wife of a former Vietnam-era US Navy pilot, this sister-in-law of a former US Marine, and the aunt of a former member of the US Army.

Simmons is also a volunteer with Stories Behind the Stars, a group dedicated to telling the stories of all 421,000 fallen American soldiers of World War II. And, she is a frequent speaker to service groups, military organizations, veterans’

appearances: VIDEOS & PODCASTS

Simmons has addressed a wide variety of audiences, from aspiring writers, to book enthusiasts, to community advocates, veterans’ groups, and military history museums. Most often she highlights the stories of individuals who have served and sacrificed far from the spotlight.

National Museum of World War II with Bradley Hart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2FzDBqLet0

National D-Day Memorial: Someone Talked with John C. McManus
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKN-GN1pWBw

WW2TV with Paul Woodadge
https://www.youtube.com/live/yuZwTRCtdRI?

History Happy Hour with Rick Beyer and Chris Anderson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97VPG0uJ2X4

Ernie Pyle WWII Museum Podcast
ttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-81-no-average-day–67669180

National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNhjK3XVEZE

Veterans Breakfast Club with Todd DePastino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6bhhD6BSxg

National Museum of the Pacific War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au1aFgLej2w

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller’s pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death of Navy Seaman Second Class Wanza E. Matthews, moments before midnight, after the Japanese submarine I-56 attacked his ship off New Guinea. The sinking of the hellship Arisan Maru—a lesser-known tragedy of the war—bookends and weaves through the two-dozen selected other incidents. 

No Average Day eschews the conventional discourse of the war’s origins, its great battles, and the maneuvering of generals, admirals, and politicians. Instead, it directs its attention to ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. These are men, perhaps a reader’s brother, father, or neighbor, who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place. There, described in relatable terms, the men hunch their shoulders against the cold, wipe grit from their foreheads, or pen a letter home minutes before drawing their last breath. No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in France and jungles in the South Pacific, to the villages, placid bays, and forested mountainsides across the globe where the war also raged. 

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