Donald StrattonRecensioni

UPDATE: Although I do have this on my Kindle, I did end up checking the book out from my local library because they actually had it and I really do love reading from real books. But what a coincidence that Donald Stratton passed away on Feb 15, 2020...the very day I returned this book back to the library.

This is not just another war story. This is the first “memoir” written of one’s personal experience on the USS ARIZONA before, during, and after the sneak attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor. And since it was published just a few years ago, in 2016, and only 5 men were left alive who served on that ship, I’m thinking this may be the last as well. Donald G. Stratton is still alive today, age 97, and living in Colorado Springs. To date, there are now only 3 men from the USS ARIZONA alive today. There were 185 ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet that were moored up inside the harbor the morning of Sunday, Dec 7, 1941. Of the 1,512 sailors on the USS ARIZONA, 345 men survived. From beginning to end, this story is very engaging. I learned so much that I had never known before about this war. You can follow Donald G. Stratton on his Facebook page.

Don Stratton is a southern Nebraska boy, born in 1922 in rural Inavale. His dad was one of the poor sharecroppers and their family barely survived the 1930’s “dust bowl”. During the dust bowl years, the family packed up and headed just a little way east to a little town called Red Cloud, where he would grow up and graduate high in 1940, just in time to enlist in the military, as war was looming in the horizon. The Nazi’s were conquering France, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, along with Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. And the Japanese were conquering Korea, Manchuria, and Mainland china, while pretending peace-talks with the U.S. But, like most young men, having still feeling the effects of the Great Depression, Don joined because he was to receive a steady paycheck, daily meals, and free room and board.

He enlisted in September 1940 and was shipped off to Great Lakes, Illinois for basic training. Sixty-seven years later, in September 2007, my son joined the Navy and was also shipped off to the same facility for basic training. Stratton was then stationed on the USS ARIZONA, which was being overhauled in the Naval shipyard out of Bremerton, Washington. He spent his first 3 months of service basically scraping barnacles off the bottom of the ship, then they sailed down the coast to Long Beach, California, to stock up before making the 5-day long journey to Pearl Harbor, in the south coast Hawaiian island of Oahu. They arrived in Pearl Harbor just eight months before the sneak attack by the Japanese, which occurred on December 7, 1941. The USS ARIZONA was supposed to head back to Bremerton, Washington, to be overhauled again in the Navy shipyard in November of that year, but as fate would have it, the ship was side-swiped by the USS OKLAHOMA while on maneuvers and had to be placed in the yards there at Hawaii. They weren't going home for Christmas.

He was in the placed in the 6th Division aboard the USS ARIZONA and was director of the port antiaircraft on the sky-control platform. A couple of the photos in the book mark where he was at his station as the ship was being bombed and exploding. One photo of the ship was taken by the Japanese from aircraft just as it was being bombed. The airplanes were flying so close that he actually saw the face of one Japanese as he flew by, with a mocking smile on his face and waving. A total of 2,403 were killed that day at Pearl Harbor.

Stratton re-enlisted in the Navy again and went through boot training once again at Farragut, Ohio. He served on the USS STACK at the battle of Leyte Gulf in, a fierce 3-day battle in October 1944 and at the invasion of Okinawa, the largest amphibious landing in the Pacific theater. The Japanese had 5 lading strips built here, so it was important to cripple this entry. Leading the campaign were 1,213 Navy ships of which Stratton was a part of, along with 461,866 other service men. The ships created a circular barrier around Okinawa to protect the amphibious transports to the beach and pounded the beach with gunfire to help the men land on the beach so maybe our men would have a fighting chance.

Here, the movies never gave a hint of what the Navy ships were going through as well as the men being transported to the beach. The problem was the Japanese had created suicide bomb planes, called "kamikaze". The Oka (a.k.a. Kamikaze) planes were built super lightweight less than 1,000 pounds so it could carry 4,000 pounds of fuel and explosives, which was carried in the nose section. Between October 25, 1944 and the end of the war in August of 1945, the Japanese had launched 4,000 suicide missions. For the Navy on watch out at sea at Okinawa, this was the thing they feared the most. One in seven were successful in sinking a ship or severely damaging it. By the time it was all said-and-done, the Navy lost 15 of its picket ships and another 45 were damaged. On those ships, we lost 1,348 sailors and 1,585 were wounded.

Stratton goes into the reasons why the U.S. decided to drop the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the Japanese marched across China, attacked Pearl Harbor without warning, and overtook the islands in the South Pacific, and news spread of the murdering our prisoners of war, and the torturous Bataan March, ignoring the voices of even their own people, we had tried everything, working up to the atomic bombs...warnings, embargoes, trade restrictions, sanctions, then bombing certain cities, such as Tokyo, and 25 other cities. In Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Japanese had huge losses. At Iwo Jima, the U.S. lost 7,600, while the Japanese lost 19,000; and at Okinawa, the U.S. lost 7,600, while the Japanese lost 110,000 men. Still they would not surrender. Dropping the nuclear bombs was the only language they understood. America gave the citizens warning of the bomb by dropping 5 million leaflets of what's to come and encouraging them to leave certain cities that were potential targets. One week after the bombs were dropped, the Japanese surrendered. On September 2, 1945, the documents of Japan's surrender was signed.
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The best documentary about the USS ARIZONA is Discovery Channel's "Pearl Harbor: Death of the Arizona".

Books he mentioned that might be worth looking into:

1. You Can't Go Home Again: A Novel - Thomas Wolfe
2. He mentions the book, "The Worst Hard Time".
3. Book 1 - At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor - Gordon W. Prange
4. Book 2 - Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History - Gordon W. Prange
5. Look into other books about the Republican River Flood of 1935, which killed nearly a hundred people in Red Cloud, and others in surrounding towns. The great flood only flooded out Don Stratton’s family’s basement. His father helped with the cleanup, and made money, using his team of horses to haul away trees and piles of debri that had been washed into town.

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I have read a few first-hand accounts of war experiences, including The Diary of Anne Frank, some of Kipling's stuff and From Green Bay to the Persian Gulf, written by SSG Walter Coyle, an NCO I served with. Some of these, are difficult reads. This one is not, in the sense that the language is relatively simple.

This books is a good window into the mind of a young WWII veteran in general and a survivor of the Arizona in specific. I was, in a sense, very much like Donald Statton once upon a time when I was signing my name to a military contract.. I knew nothing of the world and though I was adventure bound, I had no idea of what that meant.

Had I read this book in 1975, I might at least have gone out into the world a little more alert than I did.

I need to buy this for my library. It is an easy read that will appeal to my boys who love war stories. Bonus that it is a memoir with a photo insert section. It made me cry in places, the horror and heartbreak of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor was well written and detailed enough to get to me but not make me ill. The poem that Eleanor Roosevelt carried around in her wallet for the rest of her life is worth reprinting here.

Dear Lord,
Lest I continue
My complacent way,
Help me to remember that somewhere,
Somehow out there
A man died for me today.
As long as there be war,
I must answer
Am I worth dying for?

All The Gallant Men: An America Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor, Donald Stratton, Ken Gire, authors; Mike Ortego, narrator.
Donald Stratton was 94 years old (now 97) when he wrote his memoir to commemorate the December 7th, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. He believed, as the quote he references says, “when a person dies, it is like a library burns down.” He wanted to preserve his memories of that day for future generations. Pearl Harbor was an attack on this nation by a country that was actively engaged in duplicitous peace talks with America’s envoys. Japan’s act of war was a sneak attack of enormous magnitude for which they would ultimately pay dearly, but so did America. The book points out not only their heinous behavior, but it also shows the naïveté of the government, during this time, when Hitler was rising to power and advancing across Europe. We were asleep at the wheel, basking in an arrogant attitude of superiority, assuming we were safe even though all the signs of this act of war were on the horizon. Had there not been failures in communication, perhaps the dead and wounded of Pearl Harbor would not have numbered so many.
Donald is a survivor of the attack that “will live in infamy”, in the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He carries his battle scarred body and memories with him everyday. Brought up in the Plains, poor, but faithful, he and his family were a tight knit unit with the belief that no matter what happened, G-d would provide for their welfare. Devout, they attended church in the best and the worst of times. The Sears Catalogue was their lifeline to the rest of the world, and it was through those pages that he learned what else was available to those who were better off, to those who lived elsewhere; he learned what was available to those who were not sharecroppers living basically from hand to mouth, using potato sacking for clothing and subsisting on kitchen gardens. With two younger brothers and a sister, he lived in four rooms with an outhouse. There were two bedrooms, a wood stove for cooking and a stove in the fireplace used for heat. Yet they remained content as a family unit.
The times were different then and so it seems was the outlook on life. America was loved by patriots all over the United States, and they would eagerly step up to the plate when needed for its survival. Today, times seem a bit different. Today patriotism, especially associated with nationalism, is considered a “dirty word”; our flag is often disrespected, and those who profess love for the country are sometimes called “deplorables”. After reading his book, I can only hope that when the call comes to defend our shores, there will be men and women who are as brave as he was, who will stand up for what is just and right, and who will exhibit the valorous behavior that Stratton did.
Donald’s story is one of deep devotion to his country. Even though he was gravely burned in the Pearl Harbor attack, as soon as he was able, he reenlisted and went back to fight with his “band of brothers”. His desire is to keep the memory of Pearl Harbor alive, as we must keep the memory of 9/11 alive, because forgetting might help to lay the groundwork for another sneak attack on our country. To me, his message affirms and asserts that we must be prepared, and we must be ready to defend ourselves and our great nation.
The narrator of this book spoke in a measured town which conveyed the story without undue emotional involvement, therefore making the reenactment of that horrific day tolerable and comprehensible for the reader. The story of Stratton is both moving and inspiring. I hope the young adults of today, who have been coddled and brought up to expect life on a silver platter, will be up to the task if it ever arises.

Captivating memoir from a survivor of the USS Arizona.

5533. All the Gallant Men An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor, by Donald Stratton with Ken Gire (read 18 Feb 2018) The main author of this book was born 14 July 1922 in Inavale, Neb. and when he was 17 he enlisted in the Navy. He was assigned to the USS Arizona and this book tells of what he went through on Dec 7, 1941. The account of his narrow escape and the terrific injuries he received is well told and is wrenching and almost incredible. He had a long period of recovery from his injuries, his weight going down to 74 pounds. After he had recovered from his horrific injuries he was discharged, and for a time went back to Red Cloud, where his parents lived. But in 1944 he was able to reenlist in the Navy and saw action in the Pacific again. He married in 1950 and his career as a civilian was very strenuous, even though he had residual effects from his Pearl Harbor injuries. He was in his nineties when he wrote, with help, this book. Over the years he has often returned to Pear Harbor. I found this an a gripping story and one has to admire him for his heroic work in the war and for his strenuous life since. It is as good an account of what happened to him at Pearl Harbor as one could hope to read.

Don Stratton is a 94 year old man from Red Cloud, Nebraska. When he was 19 years old, he joined the navy and was on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. The Arizona was only at Pearl Habor because another ship, The Oklahoma, bumped into the Arizona while on a training run. In the book, he talks about some of his shipmates, including the band, thought of as the best band in the fleet. When not playing, the band members worked loading ammunition into the big guns. Stratton goes through the attack and the bombs that hit the Arizona finally igniting all the ammunition and destroying the ship and most of the men on board, including the band. Stratton and others on the gun, were badly burned with no way off the ship. The Arizona had been paired with a repair ship, The Vestal. One of the men on the Vestal, Joe George, had a reputation for fighting and insubordination. He threw a rope over to the Arizona for Stratton and four or five others who were all already badly burned were able to use the rope to get to the Vestal. George had been ordered by his captain to cut the rope but refused so Stratton and the others were saved although they wouldn't all survive for long. The Arizona had over 1100 men and slightly more than 450 survived. At the time of the book's publication there were only 5 still alive, including Stratton. He spends some time talking about his treatment and then he was discharged and he returned home to Red Cloud. It took over a year to recover although he would always have scars. He then rejoined the navy and served on another ship until the end of the war. Stratton talked about visiting the memorial to the ship at Pearl Harbor. During one visit, the Japanese man in charge of the first wave of bombers had gotten religion, spent time with Billy Graham, and was on hand for the 75th anniversary. Stratton and some of the others couldn't bring themselves to shake hands with him. In the book, he also goes over the warnings ignored by those in high command that might have led to fewer deaths and less destruction. Overall a good book although not particularly deep.

finished [All The Gallant Men] by [[Donald Stratton with Ken Gire]]. This book moved me to tears more than once. I have been reading about World War II and this is the second book I've read in a month about Pearl Harbor. This book is the first memoir of a survivor of the attack of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It gives you a first hand account of what it was like on that day, during the attack. The actions of the servicemen and civilian personal that day were exceptional. The attack was something that we should never forget. I highly recommend this book and rate it 5 stars.