Bluejacket: Memoirs of a U.S. Navy Sailor By: AE Kirkpatrick OSC/USN., Ret. In this fascinating memoir, AE Kirkpatrick provides a glimpse into an enlisted man’s career in the 70s and 80s. Kirkpatrick explains the training, technology, and life experiences during his time with the Navy. He shows the tedium and boredom a man feels as well as the trials he faces while traveling to foreign parts of the world. All in all, it is an upbeat tale any reader can relate to!
Vigorous and highly readable, this portrait of the enlisted man's life aboard the U.S. battleship California depicts the devastation at Pearl Harbor from the hazardous vantage point of the open "birdbath" atop the mainmast.
In this memoir of life aboard aircraft carriers during World War II, Alvin Kernan combines vivid recollections of his experience as a young enlisted sailor with a rich historical account of the Pacific war. Kernan served in many battles and was aboard the Hornet when it was sunk by torpedoes in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. “One of the most arresting naval autobiographies yet published.”—Sir John Keegan “An honest story of collective courage, evocative, well-written, and fixed before the colors fade.”—Kirkus Reviews “[Kernan] recounts a wonderful and exciting American story about a poor farm boy from Wyoming who enlisted in the Navy. . . .[He] has written eight other books. I will go back and read them all.”—John Lehman, Air & Space “Details . . . make the moment vivid; that is what it was like, on the Hornet in its last hours.”—Samuel Hynes, New York Times Book Review
William Robinson, whose pseudonym may well have been his lower-deck nickname, volunteered for naval service in May 1805. This was in itself unusual by this time, but, rather more true to form, he eventually deserted in 1811. However, in his six years as an ordinary seaman he saw much action, including fighting at Trafalgar in the 74-gun Revenge - and less gloriously at the controversial Basque Roads attack, and the disastrous invasion of Walcheren in 1809. His experiences were probably typical of a Channel Fleet sailor of those years, and Robinson's descriptions are particularly valuable because, while he was an intelligent observer, he never became embittered by the harsh conditions, so his account is balanced and credible.
"First published in 1836, this was one of the very first authentic accounts of life in the Nelsonic navy from the viewpoint of the common sailor. William Robinson, whose pseudonym may well have been his lower-deck nickname, volunteered for naval service in May 1805. This was in itself unusual at the time, but, rather more true to form, he eventually deserted in 1811. In his six years as an ordinary seaman he saw much action, including fighting at Trafalgar in the 74-gun Revenge, when he was involved with the celebrated rescue of Jeanette, the French woman plucked naked from the sea. He was also present at the attack on the French fleet at Basque Roads, the ill-fated expedition to Walcheren and was later on a ship carrying men and supplies to Wellington in the Peninsula. These 'forecastle recollections' also tell us much about the everyday routine of shipboard life and, in particular, the fierce disciplinary regimes, with its range of draconian punishments." "What makes the memoirs so valuable is that Jack Nastyface was an intelligent observer, who never became embittered by the harsh conditions, and who wrote a wholly credible account with insight, verve and humour."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
From World War II to Korea to Vietnam, Chet Bright handled some of the Navy's most dangerous jobs. He faced the prospect of death at sea many times, but he lived for the adventure. Bluejacket is the story of those adventures, from his days at war to his post-military years sailing the Caribbean. He gave his life to the sea. In return, it gave him these memories.
Amid the host of personal memoirs published about World War II, Kernan's stands out as the classic description of an enlisted man's perspective of the great age of aircraft carriers. Crossing the Line conveys the realities of a sailor's life on a wartime carrier, relating the inveterate routines along with the moments of sheer terror that mobilized boys into fighting men. Kernan writes with unerring honesty of the enlisted man's struggle to survive with honor; the poor equipment, faulty tactics, and petty rules; the loneliness as well as the congenial interludes with crew mates; the escape sought in barroom brawls and brothels during liberty.
