Adam Pelko is the protagonist of A Boy at War, a young man of 14 who at the start of the novel has recently moved to the island of Oahu with his mother, father, and younger sister, Bea. Adam’s father joined the navy before Adam was born, and Adam has spent his entire life on military bases, immersed in military culture. His concept of home is America in its entirety; he has no sentimental ties to any particular part of the country and sees the military community, service members, and their dependents alike as his extended family. Adam is used to attending school on base, wherever his father happens to be stationed.

When he arrives in Oahu, Adam attends public school with civilian students for the first time. Prior to his enrollment at Roosevelt High, Adam’s friends have always been selected from among his peers whose parents were also officers. Adam has always adhered to the rigid expectation that he must not socialize with other adolescents whose parents are of a lower rank. In choosing to go fishing with his friend Davi, and to continue visiting Davi after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adam engages in his first conscious defiance of his father’s demands.