Van of Valor

The Marine’s Guide to Gate 2 Street opens in English from one cover and in Japanese from the other

A retired Air Force senior master sergeant who spent six years stationed in Okinawa will release a book about the island’s most famous liberty street on Nov. 10, the 251st birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Dr. Kevin P. Wallace, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor recipient and founder of the Van of Valor mission, wrote The Marine’s Guide to Gate 2 Street for the young service members who arrive in Okinawa and head straight for the bars and clubs outside Kadena Air Base’s Gate 2.

The story follows Pfc. Tyler Williams, a Marine from rural Illinois, whose first night on Gate 2 Street ends with a brutal bar fight. Shaken, he begins a quieter search, learning from a geologist, a historian and an old fisherman about the island’s coral origins, the Ryukyu Kingdom, the Battle of Okinawa and the endangered dugong, and facing the crimes and broken promises that have strained relations between Okinawans and the U.S. military.

The 254-page paperback is a “flip book.” Readers start the English edition from the front cover; turning the book over reveals a complete Japanese translation printed in traditional vertical text. The two halves meet in the middle at a photograph taken by the author.

Wallace was stationed on Okinawa from 2000 to 2006, raising two young daughters as a single father. He credits Okinawan neighbors, teachers and strangers with helping his family through those years, and the book closes on the island proverb Nuchi du takara, “Life is a treasure.”

The book (ISBN 979-8-950350-06-1) is published by WW Consulting Solutions. More information about Wallace and Van of Valor, which records the stories of Purple Heart recipients and Gold Star families across the United States, is available at http://www.HelpVoV.com.