The Last of the 357th Infantry: Harold Frank's WWII Story of Faith and Courage (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781684512454)

Mark Hager is a historian and award-winning documentary filmmaker based in North Carolina. Hager's interest in living history was sparked by a childhood in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he grew up near a military base surrounded by military veterans, whose stories fascinated him. He began recording veteran memoirs among his own family, including those of an uncle who was a WWII Bronze Star veteran of the North Africa and Italy Campaign, and a cousin who served on the USS Pennsylvania during the Pearl Harbor attack and then fought across the Pacific. Hagar joined the U.S. Army himself where he served as a field artillery surveyor. He was stationed in Germany during the Cold War and observed communism through the barbed wire, concrete walls, and Soviet propaganda. Later during master's studies at UNC Greensboro, Hager became engrossed in public history, conducting interviews and documenting local history, including veteran stories. Hager went on to a career in teaching and filmmaking. He coproduced Tele award-winning The Border States of America, a comprehensive documentary that paints a picture of the U.S.-Mexico Border through the eyes of sheriffs, ranchers, and residents in each border county. He is also producer and director of The Last Gathering - The 75th Anniversary of D Day, which led him to the story of Harold Frank, the last of the 357th, who lived an early life filled with the struggles of the Great Depression and the intense action and horror of WW II--a life filled with lessons of resilience, rugged individualism, and faith. Hager currently teaches and serves as president of the Forks of the Yadkin and Davie County Cultural History Museum in Mocksville, North Carolina.