Good Night Officially: The Pacific War Letters of a Destroyer Sailor (Reville Book) [Paperback]

William M. McBride (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Reville Book | Publication Date: September 1, 2000

From the time when he joined the US destroyer "Howorth" during the Pacific War in April 1944 until his death a year later in a kamikaze attack off Okinawa, Yeoman Second Class Orvill Raines wrote a series of letters to his young bride. Due to Raines's special relationship with the officer responsible for censoring, the correspondence was uncensored, and for this book the letters have been edited and set in their historical context. The letters reflect the horrific experiences of the thousands of American sailors involved in the fight against the Japanese, and conclude with Raines's final letter to his wife, which he instructed was to be opened in the event of his death.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The destroyer USS Howorth , commissioned in 1944, took part in 11 shore bombardments, destroyed 12 Japanese warplanes, and won battle stars in the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns. Yeoman Second Class Orvill Raines's remarkably expressive letters to his wife convey in vivid detail what it was like to serve aboard a "tin can" in an increasingly dangerous war zone. He writes of the daily routine of ship and crew, his struggle against boredom and homesickness, his dreams of the postwar future, and periods of stark terror as Japanese kamikazes began to stalk the fleet. Raines, a former Dallas Morning News reporter, was 26 years old and passionately in love with his wife of four years, Ray Ellen. His expressions of devotion ("I kiss the lipstick you put on your letters . . . and feel your heavenly body next to mine") are universal and poignant in the context of a war he would not survive. McBride, professor of history at James Madison University in Virginia, has done an excellent job of editing, footnoting and putting the letters in historical context. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Orvill Raines was a happily married Texas newspaperman before he joined the navy in 1943. He served aboard the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Howorth from early 1944 until his death in action when his ship was hit by a Japanese suicide plane off Okinawa in 1945. He left behind a mass of letters to his wife, letters so full of affection that one sometimes feels like a voyeur reading them. As Raines was both older and more articulate than many enlisted men, his letters offer abundant testimony about the boredom, stress, small-group politics, hardships, and occasional luxuries of the Pacific war destroyer fleet. There is comparatively little material available on the enlisted man's naval war. As an example of such, this volume for the moment deserves to rank with James Fahey's Pacific War Diary and Thomas Heggen's classic novel, Mister Roberts. Roland Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: TAMU Press (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585441066
• ISBN-13: 978-1585441068
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,349,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real life on a tin can (destroyer) in the South Pacific., September 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Night Officially: The Pacific War Letters of a Destroyer Sailor : The Letters of Yeoman James Orvill Raines (History & Warfare) (Paperback)

Orvill Raines was my friend. We were together from the time the ship was commissioned 4/3/44 until he died on April 6, 1945 at Okinawa. Ray Ellen (his wife) kept these letters and when I first contacted her in 1990 she mentioned them to me and offered them to the HOWORTH VETS. We published them at our own expense. Williams McBride took the War Diary AND Letters/Memories and completed the manuscript that became Good Night Officially. After our Memorial Service aboard the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge, I escorted her around the ship and was able to answer all the questions that she had, had down thru the years. It made it possible. It made it worth while

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This was the real destroyer war in the Pacific, September 15, 2000

By 

Bob Summers (Spokane, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Night Officially: The Pacific War Letters of a Destroyer Sailor (Reville Book) (Paperback)

Although some of the love letters become repetitive, this book captures better than anything the true nature of the destroyer war in the Pacific against Japan. The commentary gets to the point of the hard work and anonymous sacrifice of the common enlisted man in the desperate fight against Japan. The final letter written by Yeoman Raines, and delivered to his wife after his death, is one of the most wrenching and moving literary expressions to come from this war.