A Young Sailor at War

A Young Sailor at War PDF Author: Theodore Catton
Publisher: Kent State University Press
ISBN: 9781606353936
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
While a number of published collections of World War II letters are available to readers, few rise to the level of war literature. A Young Sailor at War: The World War II Letters of William R. Catton Jr. is remarkable for the narrative skill of its letter writer, for his exuberance and candor, and for his youthful but thoughtful commentary. Edited by his son Theodore, Catton's letters give us a truly intimate look into an essential piece of history. William R. Catton Jr. volunteered for navy service on his 17th birthday in January 1943 and served as a plane handler onboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga from August 1944 through the end of WWII. He learned how to rebuild an aircraft engine and fire a 50-caliber machine gun before he was 18 and made two voyages across the Pacific and saw a year of combat before he was 20. He was wounded in a devastating kamikaze attack in January 1945, and he was on deck to watch the sunrise on Mount Fuji when Ticonderoga entered Tokyo Bay after the Japanese surrender seven months later. Bill was a prolific correspondent who displayed a wide-eyed sense of adventure and a self-conscious pride in being a witness to history. He reported events and personal interactions in clear, often colorful prose. Upon returning home, his sea stories mostly went untold, his Purple Heart medal and stripes went into a box of mementos never to be shown, while his letters from the war--carefully saved by his mother--went unread until his son began to examine them after his father's death. Bill Catton, who went on to become a sociologist well known for his work on the environment and human ecology, has indeed left us a unique commentary.

A Young Sailor at War

A Young Sailor at War PDF Author: Theodore Catton
Publisher: Kent State University Press
ISBN: 9781606353936
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Get Book Here

Book Description
While a number of published collections of World War II letters are available to readers, few rise to the level of war literature. A Young Sailor at War: The World War II Letters of William R. Catton Jr. is remarkable for the narrative skill of its letter writer, for his exuberance and candor, and for his youthful but thoughtful commentary. Edited by his son Theodore, Catton's letters give us a truly intimate look into an essential piece of history. William R. Catton Jr. volunteered for navy service on his 17th birthday in January 1943 and served as a plane handler onboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga from August 1944 through the end of WWII. He learned how to rebuild an aircraft engine and fire a 50-caliber machine gun before he was 18 and made two voyages across the Pacific and saw a year of combat before he was 20. He was wounded in a devastating kamikaze attack in January 1945, and he was on deck to watch the sunrise on Mount Fuji when Ticonderoga entered Tokyo Bay after the Japanese surrender seven months later. Bill was a prolific correspondent who displayed a wide-eyed sense of adventure and a self-conscious pride in being a witness to history. He reported events and personal interactions in clear, often colorful prose. Upon returning home, his sea stories mostly went untold, his Purple Heart medal and stripes went into a box of mementos never to be shown, while his letters from the war--carefully saved by his mother--went unread until his son began to examine them after his father's death. Bill Catton, who went on to become a sociologist well known for his work on the environment and human ecology, has indeed left us a unique commentary.

A Sailor's Life

A Sailor's Life PDF Author: Z. W. Ski Kowalewski
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781888215687
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 78

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Book Description
"Ski Kowalewski is a World War II veteran who enlisted in the United States Navy prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ski was a member of the famous Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8) devastated at the Battle of Midway. He flew from four aircraft carriers as an aerial turret gunner in TBF-1 torpedo bombers. He survived a torpedo bomber crash and many torpedo bomber attacks on Japanese surface ships including an aircraft carrier. He was also recruited to support the Marines fighting the Japanese on Guadalcanal at Bloody Ridge. He participated in the burial ceremony at sea of a German submarine captain who had been captured by US Naval forces in the North Atlantic. He is an FAA-rated Airline Transport Pilot, multi-engine land and sea rated. He has flown 25 different aircraft, a jet and ultalights with 14,000 logged flight hours. Ski graduated from Navy flight training and was rated as a Navy pilot. He served one half of his 20-year Navy career as a pilot. After retiring from the Navy, he had a successful career with the Federal Aviation Administration as an Airways Systems Inspection Pilot." --P. [4] of cover.

The Kissing Sailor

The Kissing Sailor PDF Author: Lawrence Verria
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612511279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
On August 14, 1945, Alfred Eisenstaedt took a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, minutes after they heard of Japan’s surrender to the United States. Two weeks later LIFE magazine published that image. It became one of the most famous WWII photographs in history (and the most celebrated photograph ever published in the world’s dominant photo-journal), a cherished reminder of what it felt like for the war to finally be over. Everyone who saw the picture wanted to know more about the nurse and sailor, but Eisenstaedt had no information and a search for the mysterious couple’s identity took on a dimension of its own. In 1979 Eisenstaedt thought he had found the long lost nurse. And as far as almost everyone could determine, he had. For the next thirty years Edith Shain was known as the woman in the photo of V-J Day, 1945, Times Square. In 1980 LIFE attempted to determine the sailor’s identity. Many aging warriors stepped forward with claims, and experts weighed in to support one candidate over another. Chaos ensued. For almost two decades Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi were intrigued by the controversy surrounding the identity of the two principals in Eisenstaedt’s most famous photograph and collected evidence that began to shed light on this mystery. Unraveling years of misinformation and controversy, their findings propelled one claimant’s case far ahead of the others and, at the same time, dethroned the supposed kissed nurse when another candidate’s claim proved more credible. With this book, the authors solve the 67-year-old mystery by providing irrefutable proof to identify the couple in Eisenstaedt’s photo. It is the first time the whole truth behind the celebrated picture has been revealed. The authors also bring to light the couple’s and the photographer’s brushes with death that nearly prevented their famous spontaneous Times Square meeting in the first place. The sailor, part of Bull Halsey’s famous task force, survived the deadly typhoon that took the lives of hundreds of other sailors. The nurse, an Austrian Jew who lost her mother and father in the Holocaust, barely managed to escape to the United States. Eisenstaedt, a World War I German soldier, was nearly killed at Flanders.

I Should Have Written A Book

I Should Have Written A Book PDF Author: Tom Grannetino
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525535986
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
William Grannetino served in the US navy during World War II. From the day he landed on Omaha Beach to the morning he sailed out of the Pacific theatre for the last time, he was surrounded by violence, trauma, death, and a comradery unparalleled in civilian life. Through the pen of Grannetino’s son, readers are provided a glimpse of a sailor’s gut-wrenching realities of war as he relates details about little-known landings that happened ahead of the initial D-Day assault and unique facts somehow lost in history. Compelling descriptions of street to street fighting in the city of Caen, the urgency of rushing military support to the Battle of the Bulge, and the terror of Kamikaze attacks in the Pacific, transport readers right to the battle zone. From the jubilation over the end of hostilities to the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tom Grannetino has captured his father’s stories and crafted an historical and deeply personal account of one man’s experiences in the Second World War.

Pacific War Diary, 1942-1945

Pacific War Diary, 1942-1945 PDF Author: James J. Fahey
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618400805
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Fahey was a 24-year-old garbage-truck driver when he enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 3, 1942, and became a seaman first class on the USS Montpelier. During almost three years of battle in the Pacific Ocean, he defied Navy rules against keeping a diary by writing copious notes on loose sheets of paper that appeared to anyone watching to be ordinary let

Battle Fleet

Battle Fleet PDF Author: Paul Dowswell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1599908611
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
When the truth about Sam Witchall's false conviction is finally revealed, he can at last escape Australia and look toward home. On the journey back to England he faces pirates and a terrible storm before making the longed-for trip back up the river Thames. Finally reunited with his family in Norfolk, Sam realizes how much life at sea has become part of him. So when he hears that Napoleon plans to attack England, he is tempted to join the British navy once more, and finds himself midshipman on none other than the Victory, preparing for one of the most epic battles in history: Trafalgar. Loyal readers will not want to miss the stirring conclusion to this dramatic series.

A Sailor's Story

A Sailor's Story PDF Author: Sam Glanzman
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486798127
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
"An unabridged republication of the following works originally published by Marvel Comics, New York: A Sailor's Story (1987) and A Sailor's Story, Book Two: Winds, Dreams, and Dragons (1989)"--Title page verso.

Sailor Life on Man of War and Merchant Vessel

Sailor Life on Man of War and Merchant Vessel PDF Author: Charles Nordhoff
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781021465849
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Originally published in 1857, this book offers a vivid and engaging portrait of life at sea, as experienced by a young sailor on both naval and merchant ships. Nordhoff draws on his own experiences to describe the routines and challenges of seafaring life, as well as the camaraderie, conflict, and adventure that characterized it. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

One Sailor’s Story: A Narrative of World War II by a Destroyer Escort Sonar Man

One Sailor’s Story: A Narrative of World War II by a Destroyer Escort Sonar Man PDF Author: Malcolm Akey
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1300272163
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
For Christmas of 1988 my wife, Doris, and our children Ronn, Carolyn and Phyllis gave me a tape recorder in order that I might record my story of the war. So during the winter of 1989, I taped the story of my experiences of the time leading up to World War II and the time I spent as a Destroyer Escort Sonar Man in the Navy. My story ended up being 22 ninety-minute tapes. Over the course of 4 months during the winter of 2011-12, Erma Akey, my sister-in-law, transcribed my story using these tapes. My daughter, Phyllis Akey Gregg and her husband, K.T. (Tom) Gregg, edited this story. Thanks go to Erma, Phyllis and Tom for the time they spent on my memoirs of WWII. Additional thanks goes to my granddaughter, Cynthia Kiesel, and her sister-in-law, Janet Kiesel, for designing and publishing this book.

Young Nelsons

Young Nelsons PDF Author: D. A. B. Ronald
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780965869
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This book takes us into the fascinating and sometimes tragic world of the boy sailors of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, fighting and dying for their country across the oceans of the world. They 'fought like young Nelsons.' The words of a schoolmaster, writing from aboard the Mars after the battle of Trafalgar, describing the valour of his pupils in the heat of battle. Made immortal by the novels of Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester and Alexander Kent, these boy sailors, alongside those of every other Royal Navy ship, had entered the British Navy to fight the French across every ocean of the world. There was a long-standing British tradition of children going to sea, and along the way found adventure, glory, wealth and fame. During the Napoleonic Wars, these children, some as young as eight or nine, were also fighting for the very survival of Britain. Drawing on many first-hand accounts, letters, poems and writings, this book tells the dramatic story of Britain's boy sailors during the Napoleonic Wars for the very first time.