Finding Uri

Finding Uri is a memoir written by a man who has only one fleeting memory of his father. Uri Munro, a naval aviator flying off the U.S.S. Enterprise in the Pacific during World War II, was shot down and lost in January 1945.

The author, also a Navy carrier pilot, unexpectedly received a box in the mail following his mother’s death. It contained 190 letters written back and forth between his young parents, Uri and Betsy, while Uri was in the service flying in TBM torpedo bombers.

After almost a year’s consideration, the author began a two-year process of reading the letters and writing about the experience in real time. He includes photographs and often-emotional excerpts, and weaves other family members into the story.

Using thorough research Munro tells the fascinating history of Uri’s Torpedo Squadron 90. But more significantly he gets to know his father — and his mother — during that two-year period in their lives. It’s an intimate, true tale that the reader discovers along with the author.

Praise for Finding Uri

“I now know Uri and Betsy Munro and I know them intimately. I dated them, met their families, fell in love, went to their wedding, even went into their bedroom, made love, had a son and went to war with them. In this more than moving, emotional book I opened the long lost, never-opened letters between two people deeply in love but hopelessly separated by a world at war. Even in the beginning we know the end, but Sandy Munro, a naval aviator himself, takes us through history, war and tragedy with a loving pen. He doesn’t just tell the story he captures us by taking us on his journey as he unravels the mystery of his father’s death. We laugh, we weep, we remember and we breathlessly anticipate a new revelation on the next page. This is not a war book, nor a history. Finding Uri is a love story about two people, their son and his search for the father he never knew. It should become a classic bestseller about human suffering and uplifting perseverance in life. One of a handful of books I will remember forever.”
- Major General Don Shepperd, USAF (ret.), Co-Author of Bury Us Upside Down

“This weekend I traveled back in time to World War II America by reading this poignant and haunting memoir. With simple yet powerful prose, Sandy Munro gives us an adult child’s newfound understanding of the love affair between his mother, Betsy, and his father, Uri, who never returned from the war. With 190 newly discovered letters, Sandy takes the leap into the unknown, and the result is a remarkable story of enduring love and bravery. Highly recommended.”
- J. Carson Black, Author of Darkness on the Edge of Town and The Shop

Why did she keep the letters all this time? I can only wonder if she meant for them to come to me after she was gone. It’s not that they are too specifically descriptive, if I can say it that way, but they are still the most personal of things. If either of them were still around I couldn’t possibly be doing this. I don’t want to be in violation of their privacy, but the way it all happened makes me feel that their story should be told. It’s as if permission has been given.
The New Year’s Eve letter is beautiful, and I’ll let you read some more of it ...

I’ll close now darling. I’m going to turn the lights out and listen to a special musical program that’s just starting. I’m going to lie her and day dream of the dearest, sweetest, most lovable man in the world, and that’s you. At twelve I’m going to talk to you for a while and I know you will hear me. I know that you are thinking of me and that especially at the time you celebrate New Years Eve your love and thoughts will come to me. I love you very very much Uri. You’re all I have in many ways so be careful and hurry to return to me.
Goodnight my angel,
Your loving wife,
Betsy

It’s not that their lives are unique. They’re not extraordinary in any way. All over the world, wives wait, children miss their fathers, and the war goes on. And yet each story is important, each tragedy is shared, and everyone is affected from that time forward. I’m trying to learn about this and convey it while I have the chance. It’s a way that I can redeem the gift that I have been given. It’s a story that is being returned to its rightful owners—the living—those of us who shared in the sacrifice.

Absolutely amazing.

Absolutely amazing story set during World War II between author Sandy Munro’s mother and father who was a Naval Aviator serving on the U.S.S Enterprise in the war in the Pacific. It’s got love, it’s got first-person recounts of such a trying time in world history and it’s got a human element that not many books carry.
Hands down one of the best books I’ve read all year and one of my favorites set during World War II. Young or old, man or woman - this book is sure not to disappoint!
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“It’s an intimate, true tale that the reader discovers along with the author.”

Finding Uri is a memoir written by a man who has only one fleeting memory of his father. Uri Munro, a naval aviator flying off the U.S.S. Enterprise in the Pacific during World War II, was shot down and lost in January 1945.

The author, also a Navy carrier pilot, unexpectedly received a box in the mail following his mother’s death. It contained 190 letters written back and forth between his young parents, Uri and Betsy, while Uri was in the service flying in TBM torpedo bombers.

After almost a year’s consideration, the author began a two-year process of reading the letters and writing about the experience in real time. He includes photographs and often-emotional excerpts, and weaves other family members into the story.

Using thorough research Munro tells the fascinating history of Uri’s Torpedo Squadron 90. But more significantly he gets to know his father — and his mother — during that two-year period in their lives. It’s an intimate, true tale that the reader discovers along with the author.

Posted by Matthew Smaldon at Recollections of WWII: Memoirs & Books Which Should Be On Your Bookshelf

Finding Uri

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