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An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor
William Morrow
December 2016
On Sale: November 22, 2016
320 pages
ISBN: 0062645358
EAN: 9780062645357
Kindle: B01ER6OKOO
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir | Non-Fiction History
THE FIRST MEMOIR BY A USS ARIZONA SURVIVOR: Donald Stratton, one of the battleship's five living heroes, delivers an "epic,"* "powerful,"** and "intimate"** eyewitness account of Pearl Harbor and his unforgettable return to the fight At 8:06 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno. A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely fifteen minutes into Japanβs surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. Near death and burned across two thirds of his body, Don, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan who had been steeled by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel. Forty-five feet below, the harborβs flaming, oil-slick water boiled with enemy bullets; all around him the world tore itself apart. In this extraordinary never-before-told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attackβthe only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizonaβninety-four-year-old veteran Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941, his harrowing recovery, and his inspiring determination to return to the fight. Don and four other sailors made it safely across the same line that morning, a small miracle on a day that claimed the lives of 1,177 of their Arizona shipmatesβapproximately half the American fatalities at Pearl Harbor. Sent to military hospitals for a year, Don refused doctorsβ advice to amputate his limbs and battled to relearn how to walk. The U.S. Navy gave him a medical discharge, believing he would never again be fit for service, but Don had unfinished business. In June 1944, he sailed back into the teeth of the Pacific War on a destroyer, destined for combat in the crucial battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, thus earning the distinction of having been present for the opening shots and the final major battle of Americaβs Second World War. As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack approaches, Don, a great-grandfather of five and one of five living survivors of the Arizona, offers an unprecedentedly intimate reflection on the tragedy that drew America into the greatest armed conflict in history. All the Gallant Men is a book for the ages, one of the most remarkableβand remarkably inspiringβmemoirs of any kind to appear in recent years.
 Media BuzzCBS This Morning - November 29, 2016
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