5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic 1st hand account of WWII Combat, March 8, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Those Navy Guys and Their PBY's: The Aleutian Solution (Paperback)
Not your typical dry (just the facts) type of account. Reading this book gives you an terrific incite into what it must have been like to fly in a PBY squadron with the greatest guys in the world. Elmer A. Freeman was there AND can write one hell of a good book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent historical insights, May 16, 2010
This review is from: Those Navy Guys and Their PBY's: The Aleutian Solution (Paperback)
I bought this book used at a yard sale, and set it aside for many months. When I finally cracked it,
I enjoyed it so much, I read it in just a few days. Mr Freeman's tales of Navy life and flying in the
Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and the Aleutians were excellent. The book is chockful of pictures, most
of which are gleaned from the National Archives, but many come from personal collections. I especially
found the pictures of what Seattle's NAS Seattle(aka Sand Point Naval Air Station) and NAS Whidbey(aka
Ault Field) looked like in the 1930's and 1940's very interesting, as well as the pictures of historic
aircraft. The pictures of Dutch Harbor under attack hit home personally with me, since my father was
there during some of those attacks. Though I can be very picky about errors, I found very few in this
book, just as far as some distances in the Puget Sound region being misquoted, and also when Mr Free-
man misidentified a Canadian flying boat as a "Stranner", when it is actually the Supermarine Stranraer.
I showed the book to some EA6 & EA18 driving acquaintances who are stationed at NAS Whidbey, and they
thoroughly enjoyed seeing what their base used to look like. One thing I found very interesting was that
though Mr. Freeman fought against the Japanese forces, and lost friends to them, I don't remember him
ever referring to the Japanese as "Japs" or "Nips". Kind of nice that he seems to have shown some for-
giveness.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Those Navy Guys and Their PBY's : The Aleutian Solution, July 11, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Those Navy Guys and Their PBY's: The Aleutian Solution (Paperback)
This first hand account of Mr. Freeman's experiences in a Navy PBY squadron during WWII is riveting. His descriptions of the months of training and a few mishaps are told with a large dose of self-deprecating wit, the quiet accounts of the darker times are told without any maudlin overtones. The reader is invited to share well-told memories that flow like much anticipated letters home from a friend; a friend who obviously loved those old PBY flying boats. Well worth the read.
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