Customer Reviews

A Boy, a Ship, and a War

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I think that perhaps the best place to begin is the part of the story that comes after the story. Paul Harvey used to call this `the rest of the story'.

"On the evening of July 7, 2010, my wife Marie and I were traveling in New York State between Sidney and Unadilla on Route 7. We stopped at a small place called Country Motel to spend the night. Both Marie and I went into the office where we were greeted by an older lady.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes, we would like a room," I said.

She looked up at my hat and asked "Were you in World War II? My husband was in that war. He was a Marine on a LST in Okinawa. His ship was hit by a Kamikaze and he had to jump into the water. He was in there for hours!"

"Don't tell me the LST was number 884!" I exclaimed.

She was shocked. She said, "How did you know that number?"

I explained, "My ship picked up all the Marines from that ship."

(Excerpt taken from The Tidewater Review, November 10, 2010)

That is the epilogue to the story, and it took place sixty-five years later.

The story begins in December, 1943, when high school drop-out Claud Aldrich, whose availability and age did not go unnoticed by Uncle Sam, was drafted into military service. Claud wanted to be a Marine, but the drafting quota for Marines was full. Given the choice, Claud chose Navy. What follows is a journal of the life of a seasick young man in a tin can called the USS Van Valkenburgh, a brand spanking new Destroyer named for the Captain of the USS Arizona who dent down with his ship in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor the morning December 7th, 1941. It is the almost daily journal of his life as Torpedo's Mate Third Class in a voyage that began and ended in South Carolina, and records a journey of over 75,000 miles, two oceans, thousands of ships and aircraft, hundreds of thousands of men, and the largest sea battle in history.

It is told from the point of view not of a professional journalist, novelist or historian, but rather from the perspective of a brave, if frightened young man who gave over two years of his young life in defense of his country in the cramped quarters of a floating speck on an endless sea.

I'm a book critic. It is my job to attack a book, whether novel or non-fiction, and scour it to pick at the nits. Aldrich made my job easy. He is not a polished professional writer. But a funny thing happened on the way to the deadline. I started to see a war waged before my birth through the eyes of a man who survived it. Suddenly, page by page, the nits became less and less an issue as I got caught up in a mind game where my heart was begging for T/M 3c Claud Aldrich to survive, even as my head kept reminding me that of course he survived. He wrote the bloody book, you fool!

I found myself finishing the short seventy-nine page read in about an hour, and discovered when I reached the end that my eyes were leaking and I wanted nothing more than to stand up, reach out, take Torpedo's Mate Third Class Claud Aldrich, USNR, American Hero by the hand and thank him.

By the way, `Bob', the marine rescued in the excerpt at the beginning of the review? His rescue is on page thirty-five.

Then get this book.

It is about WWII, but it is written by an 18 year old boy (at the time) and it is eye-opening to someone who might think war is to be glorified.

Claud tells his first-hand account of battles like Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They're horrifying because of the great price his generation had to pay to keep us free.

If you knew a WWII veteran and want to know what the war was really like - then you've got to get this book!

This book is for veterans but more so for those who've never experienced war first hand. this author takes you from incense through tbe growing up process that comes from sudden indoctrination into the life and death experiences of battle. It's a must for those of us who are interested in WWII history.

This book is short; I finished it in one sitting the afternoon I purchased it. These days it is rare for me to find a book that will hold my attention that thoroughly, long or short. Some other reviewers have been put off (respectfully in their comments) by spelling, format, the telegraphic style. Those characteristics are as the reviewers describe. I do not find them to be flaws but, rather, to have been why I found the book to be riveting. The man who was the boy on the ship in the war has written it as he remembers without any glib phrasings or polish. I have read a number of diaries by Civil War boys/soldiers and this book has the same staccato flow and idiosyncratic spellings. Whether the author wrote from memory or kept some form of diary and how much was contributed/verified by his shipmates I do not know. But this thing is authentic. And I thank him for writing it for us.

With all due respect to 5-Star Generals and noted historians, to be able to see war through the eyes of a front-line sailor is an honor not to be missed. No matter writing technicalities, we owe it to those who serve for our freedoms to honor them and cherish their stories. I highly recommend Claud's account of a boy, in the bowels is of a destroyer, during Freedom's Great War!

I realize this is supposed to be written by the mind of an 18yr old boy off at war. He is totally away from everything he is familar with, as were all those young men who went to war. But, it is very difficult to read due to the grammar and spelling. I am assuming this is a self published book, with little or no editing. Even so, that does not take away the power of the trials these young men endured.

Being a Viet-Nam vet, I can relate to a certain degree. I commend this Author.

I thank you for your Service.

If you are looking for a book relating the detailed events of this man's part in the war, you will not find it here. He very carefully recounts the dates, places and actions taken by the Destroyer he served on and his part in it. He rarely reveals his reaction to events, and there is no detail about the many engagements with the enemy and rescue missions he participated in. Just facts and nothing more. But I still thank him for his service, his bravery and the role he played, which was significant, as was the role every soldier and sailor played.