All the gallant men : an American sailor's firsthand account of Pearl Harbor /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The New York Times bestselling memoir of survival and heroism at Pearl Harbor

"An unforgettable story of unfathomable courage." --Reader's Digest

In this, the first memoir by a USS Arizona survivor, Donald Stratton delivers an inspiring and unforgettable eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack and his remarkable return to the fight.

At 8:06 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno. A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely fifteen minutes into Japan's surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. Near death and burned across two thirds of his body, Don, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan who had been steeled by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel. Forty-five feet below, the harbor's flaming, oil-slick water boiled with enemy bullets; all around him the world tore itself apart.

In this extraordinary never-before-told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack--the only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizona--ninety-four-year-old veteran Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941, his harrowing recovery, and his inspiring determination to return to the fight.

Don and four other sailors made it safely across the same line that morning, a small miracle on a day that claimed the lives of 1,177 of their Arizona shipmates--approximately half the American fatalaties at Pearl Harbor. Sent to military hospitals for a year, Don refused doctors' advice to amputate his limbs and battled to relearn how to walk. The U.S. Navy gave him a medical discharge, believing he would never again be fit for service, but Don had unfinished business. In June 1944, he sailed back into the teeth of the Pacific War on a destroyer, destined for combat in the crucial battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, thus earning the distinction of having been present for the opening shots and the final major battle of America's Second World War.

As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack approaches, Don, a great-grandfather of five and one of five living survivors of the Arizona, offers an unprecedentedly intimate reflection on the tragedy that drew America into the greatest armed conflict in history. All the Gallant Men is a book for the ages, one of the most remarkable--and remarkably inspiring--memoirs of any kind to appear in recent years.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Approaching the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Stratton's (one of the few survivors) memoir, cowritten with Gire (Windows of the Soul), offers an intimate account of his experiences on the USS Arizona and beyond. The narrative begins with a look at his childhood, explaining how a need for employment during the Great Depression compelled many of his generation to join the service and how that attitude changed after Pearl Harbor. It then sets the context and time line of the attack and shares the accounts of various shipmates. Thoughtful yet concise, Stratton relates his subsequent recovery and return to duty and analyzes the encounters that have helped to shape his life. Stratton's story parallels those of many servicemen. The details may change, but the mental and physical challenges are often similar: survivor's guilt, vengefulness, and difficulties in accepting and granting forgiveness. VERDICT Gire corroborates Stratton's accounts while allowing the author's powerful voice to shine through this volume that will sit nicely alongside other World War II memoirs and firsthand tales of combat. It would work well as a YA introduction to Pearl Harbor and to frontline servicemen's experiences. See also Gordon Prange's At Dawn We Slept and "Pearl Harbor, 75 Years Later," LJ 9/15/16.-Maria -Bagshaw, Elgin Community Coll. Lib., IL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Donald Stratton was born in 1922 and raised in Nebraska. He joined the United States Navy and served on the battleship USS Arizona. Following the Pearl Harbor attacks and his recovery, he reenlisted and served on the destroyer USS Stack. He was involved in the campaigns for New Guinea, the Philippines, and Okinawa. His memoir, All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor, written with Ken Gire and published in 2016.

(Bowker Author Biography)