The Final Mission of Bottoms Up tells the story of Lee Lamar, an American pilot turned prisoner of war after his B-24J Liberator was gunned down in 1944 over Croatia during World War II.

A professor of English at Park University, Dennis Okerstrom writes about the crash of Bottoms Up and explains how Lamar, a Missouri farm boy turned pilot, spent the coldest winter in a century in a stalag on the Baltic Sea – and then returned to the crash site more than 60 years later, seeking closure.