"Footprints in Courage: A Bataan Death March Survivor's Story" tells the inspiring tale of Army Air Corpsman Alf R. Larson who endured the infamous Bataan Death March in World War II and then faced more than four years as a Japanese prisoner of war.

"We were hot, thirsty, sick and exhausted to the point you couldn't talk, couldn't see, didn't care. After a while everything just went blank in my mind; we were hardly conscious. For six days I just put one foot in front of the other over and over and over again," Larson says of the agonizing trek that the world now calls the Bataan Death March and its 3,000 survivors (from an original 7,500 U. S. servicemen) simply call "the hike."

In "Footprints in Courage," veteran war author Kristin Gilpatrick, with the help of researcher and writer Rick Peterson, recounts Larson's battles against the Japanese, exhaustion, starvation, jungle diseases and his own mind to survive one of the most brutal and horrific environments American servicemen have ever endured.

In 2002, author Kristin Gilpatrick, along with Alf R. Larson and Rick Peterson's assistance, completed the above book. Her publisher, Badger Books, Inc. was responsible for printing 5,000 initial copies. All of these copies have been distributed and sold. After publisher and author costs were paid, the remainder of monies from the sale of the book were donated to the "Battling Bastards of Bataan" Memorial at the former site of Camp O'Donnell(photo shown on the Home Page of this website) for the upkeep of the memorial. The donation was made in the name of Alf R. Larson. Due to a number of publisher difficulties, it was not possible to reprint the book. Therefore, copies are no long available for sale.