Tin Can Man [Paperback]

Emory J. Jernigan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2010

E.J. Jernigan s memoir offers readers a fascinating glimpse of life as an enlisted man aboard the USS Saufley, one of the most highly decorated destroyers of World War II. It is a rarely told story of the sailors who fought the war from boiler rooms, after-steering spaces, radio shacks, and other gritty places that keep a warship going. For the author, it was a world of strong emotions and quick reactions, where men had to adapt and grow if they were to survive. With its colorful view of what went on below decks, the book has made a lasting contribution to World War II literature since first published in 1993. It appeals to veterans, historians, and naval enthusiasts alike looking for an honest account of what happened.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

While most naval combat books seem to be written by commanding officers of ships or by naval officers who share their tactical prowess, Tin Can Man is written from the enlisted man's point of view. The title comes from "tin cans"--a Navy nickname for destroyers. Jernigan's account of his wartime service on board the destroyer USS Saufley is realistic and his descriptions accurate. His portrayal of everyday life aboard and the battle actions of the Saufley , which was one of the most decorated ships in the U.S. Navy during World War II, plus his own naval background make this book fascinating to read. Highly recommended for public libraries or any other library that has a military or naval history collection or military clientele.
- Terry Wirick, Erie Cty. Lib. System, Pa.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

A unique, bottom-up look at what our fathers did. --Tom Clancy

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Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press; Reissue edition (March 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591144248
• ISBN-13: 978-1591144243
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #962,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A WW2 sailor's personal saga of life on and off a destroyer, December 20, 1998

By 

Alex F. Wojcicki ([e-mail]) (Fayetteville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tin Can Man (Hardcover)

If you are interested in naval history, especially of the World War II era, you will find this book to be a good complement to the usual "this happened there" chronicle. However, if you are merely a casual reader of such things, you will probably want to give it a pass.

The book is unique in that it tells the personal saga of a destroyerman's five years in the Navy, most of it while serving on the USS Saufley, a Fletcher-class destroyer. We don't often see this type of story reaching bookshelves. In this biography, E.J. Jernigan comes through as a hard-drinking, hard-fighting, hard-loving "devil may care" sailor, almost a stereotype of our image of pre-war and wartime sailors. It briefly covers his early years in Florida, then follows his career from battleships to destroyers to home after the war; from Atlantic to Pacific and back again.

His story is sometimes funny, sometimes somber, and sometimes mundane, much the same as the experiences of most of us who have served in the military. Mr. Jernigan also had his "warts", and is more than willing to tell us about them.

My interest in the book comes from the fact that I am engaged in a naval history project with a similar outcome: telling the story of a destroyer crew in World War II. In our story however, the ending is not so happy: our ship, the USS Pringle, was sunk off Okinawa by a Kamikaze in April 1945, with the loss of 70 officers and men.

What's good about Jernigan's book is (1) getting this story out on to the bookshelves; and (2) the "common man" approach to the narrative... it is not elegant, but it *is* compelling.

However, the book suffers from some faults too. First and foremost, it needs an "editor's touch". Some of the prose is quite awkward (but then some is almost lyrical in other places). It is also disjointed in a few spots, as if parts of the story got mixed up somehow. There are a few historical inaccuracies and omissions too, but few enough not to detract from the thrust of the book. Perhaps the biggest problem is that the story reaches something of an anti-climax about three quarters of the way through, then just pretty much peters on out.

If the publisher (Vandamere Press) had assumed its proper editing role, I would have given it a 5-star rating. In any event, it is a "must read" for the naval history enthusiast who wants to see what life was like below decks on a WW2 warship.

Please note that there are more than a few scatological and sexual references in the book. I would not recommend it for the "younger" set.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DON'T BLAME HIM, May 4, 2005

By 

James Hercules Sutton (Des Moines, IA (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tin Can Man (Hardcover)

for wanting to get away from home. Like many who entered the service, he did so to get away from grinding poverty and to support his family. Don't blame him for getting into scrapes, fights and disastrous liberty ashore. He was a kid, at war. Don't blame him for stiffness in prose; all he knows about writing is what he learned in high school, and, besides, he's entitled to his own style. Don't blame him for writing still another first-person account of the life of an enlisted man in the U. S. Navy during WWII; each such book adds something new. He witnessed the cliff-jumper suicides at Okinawa, for example, and he reveals that even enlisted men knew, at the time of Yamamoto's death, the Japanese Naval Code had been broken. Don't blame the man; blame the book. It's written from memory rather than contemporaneous diary, so anecdotes lack breadth and detail like James J. Fahey's "Pacific War Diary" or insights like Shelly Robinson's "10,000 Miles Aboard the Destroyer Cotten." Also, it amplifies memory with research, but lists no bibliography. Its motivation, I guess, is to write things down so memories wouldn't be lost; to honor friends; and to amuse the author--good enough reasons to spend time with a sailor who served in a death trap of an action station, sixty years later.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The personal story of an enlisted man who served aboard the USS Saufley during the war, April 14, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tin Can Man (Paperback)

It was with their introduction in World War II that destroyer class ships were originally referred to by the men who manned them as 'tin cans'. "Tin Can Man" by E. J. Jernigan is the personal story of an enlisted man who served aboard the USS Saufley during the war. It provides readers with insights into what it was like to live, work, fight, and die aboard these ships. A superbly written 206-page memoir, "Tin Can Man" is especially informative and recommended reading for military history buffs in general, and academic library 20th Century Naval History reference collections in particular.