11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An inspiring real-life, real-world memoir, May 11, 2001
This review is from: Men of Poseidon : Life at Sea Aboard the USS Rall (Paperback)
I'm the webmaster for the WWII destroyer escort USS Wintle ... I've purchased every DE book I can get my hands on to help me make my web page better. Unfortunately, there aren’t really that many good books on DE's. The few that are out there fall into two or three basic categories, those that are technical and meant mostly for WWII enthusiasts that are excited about the equipment (like model builders), and those that are “action” oriented. Since my web site was really geared to celebrate the regular people who were the crew members of a ship that “merely” did its duty escorting convoys and hunting subs, neither of these type of books typically has the depth of experience necessary to tell that type of story. After a lot of digging I did find a few “memoirs” from sailors, but inevitable they had flaws. They were not professionally published, so they were weak on proofing and editing. They tended to be spiral-bound. And if they had pictures or illustrations they were amateurish. Finally, they were often written by sailors that didn’t have access to the bridge. The authors seldom really understood the “big picture” or had researched the specifics of what their ships part was in the grand scheme of things.
When I found this book, Men of Poseidon, I was pretty impressed. The binding is professional, as are the pictures and the layout. There are no weird grammatical errors or spelling problems. The research is impeccable. Throughout, the author refers to specific log entries that he himself had made in the official ships log, which he requested from the US Navy in order to write this book. That brings up an important point. Since the author was an officer on the USS Rall, he was able to get the big picture and understand the real behind the scenes missions. He not only explains what happens on a day to day basis, but addresses why it happened. I learned a great deal from this book that no film or military history book will ever convey. In fact I learned so much that I couldn’t resist emailing the publisher to try to contact Mr. Graves himself, to see if he could help resolve some questions I had run into researching “my” DE, the USS Wintle. Imagine my surprise when he wrote me back and gave me wonderfully detailed information to help me in my work. A DE officer with an amazing memory is a tremendous resource. And he turned out to be a really nice guy.
The most important thing about the book is that the author, Richard Graves, is a very good writer. I was never confused, since the book takes the time to explain everything, yet I was never bored, since he kept things moving. That’s a very hard balance to achieve. The book does not skimp on scope either. It starts in the time leading up to the war, so you can appreciate the anti-war sentiment that was real, and the ambivalence that many people had about it, and continues on to the ships 50-year reunion.
When I categorized DE books, I didn’t put Men of Poseidon in the “action” category, because it doesn’t read that way. It’s not written to culminate in an exciting battle. However, it’s definitely more than a memoir. The USS Rall saw real action. The punishment it took at the hands of a concentrated 8-aircraft Japanese Kamikaze attack was substantial and deadly. I’m sure Mr. Graves could have chosen to write an action book about the episode. But instead he wrote a very personal memoir. It’s not about drama, it’s not about action or inflated speeches. It’s not about firepower, speed and camouflage schemes of a particular ship class. This book really is the story of the sailors of the USS Rall -- regular men in extraordinary circumstances, forced into heroism to serve their country and oppose imperialism. It’s a good book, a fun read, and an inspiring real-life, real-world memoir. It’s one of those book that, after you finish reading it, makes you feel like you just had the most amazing dinner conversation with a great story-teller. In other words, I highly recommend it.
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