As 7th December approaches, the US will commemorate and remember the 2000 odd men who died in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. An act that made US an active participant in the hitherto mainly European conflict. Donald Stratton, then a 19 year old, was stationed on USS Arizona. He along with only a few of his shipmates survived the attack. All the Gallant Men is his story. The first memoir of the fateful day ever written.
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Donald Stratton, now a grand dad lives with his family and had never talked about his experience aboard the USS Arizona on the day of Pearl harbor bombing. He will visit the memorial in Hawaii this year too like every year, perhaps his last, and so he tells the world of the horrors that unfolded on that relaxed Sunday morning in 1941.
All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor
Author: Donald Stratton, Ken Gire
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (November 22, 2016)
ISBN: 0062645358, 978-0062645357
All the Gallant Men Summary
If you believe in destiny, you must believe that this whole world is in preparation for what is to come. All the good and bad that happens, prepares you for tomorrow. Donald Stratton was born and grew up in the time of Depression and the dust bowl. Hardened by the circumstances this man showed immense strength and desire to survive when the world around him went up in flames in minutes. And so did he.
The first part of All the Gallant Men talks about his childhood and his journey to the sea and USS Arizona. He talks about his time on the ship and about his shipmates leading to the day of bombings. The author recounts the minutest details of the schedule observed on USS Arizona and their activities on the morning of December 7. He narrates how the attack started off the coast under the command of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. How the first planes were spotted minutes before they dropped bombs. And how they could see the smiling Japanese faces dropping bombs on the US fleet and do nothing but stare back.
Donald Stratton experienced more than 60 percent burns. He recounts how he witnessed his shipmates walk on the deck in flames and collapse. He shows you his scars and relives the moments when he tore of his unhinged, burned skin because it was in the way. Donald Stratton hung on to a rope leading to another vessel nearby. With the part of ship he was on bursting and the water below a raging inferno, he hung by the rope and made it to the other side along with a few others to survive the ordeal.
But the unimaginable hardship and pain did not stop this man. he refused to all ow the doctors to amputate his legs, made a full recovery and wen back to fight for his country. The last part of the book talks about his life of this time. What he thinks he learned from the attack and how he is preparing to remember his shipmates and everyone who died that day on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks.
All the Gallant Men Reviews
“and he (Ken Gire) should be roundly applauded for the unique capability… of portraying… the combination of naiveté… patriotism… and true reflection of the state of affairs . . .” ~ Rick Shaq Goldstein
Meet Donald Stratton