"Ghosts of the Arizona" is now on sale!

Ghosts of the Arizona, the fifth in my Psionic Corps mystery series, is now available at Purple Sword Publishing! 

Hawai'ian Psionic Officer Kenneth Nu'uani finds a body in scuba gear, floating near the USS Arizona in Oahu, Hawai'i.  It soon becomes known that the man didn't drown, so why was he desecrating a shrine dedicated to the people who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.  

Evidence indicates the man might have been murdered.  Kenny must use his paranormal powers to discover secrets that have been buried in the ruined battleship for decades and what was the diver after.

 

Celebrating Asian-American Heritage Month: Kurt Chew-een Lee, first Asian American Marine officer

Kurt Chew-een Lee, born January 21, 1926 in San Francisco, California to Chinese immigrants, is the first Asian-American to become an officer in the US Marine Corps.  He was in high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he joined the Marine Corps in 1944.  He graduated from The Basic School, USMC officer training in 1946 as second lieutenant, becoming the first non-white officer and the first Asian-American officer in the Marine Corps.

He served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.  He attained the rank of major on January 1, 1963 and retired in 1968.  He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.  He passed away in March 2014.

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month - PFC Richard Trujillo, WWII Hero

PFC Richard Trujillo was serving aboard the USS Nevada in Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked.  Her gunners managed to open fire and she was the only ship to get moving despite the battle going on.  She was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs, forcing the crew to beach her.  One hundred and nine men were wounded and fifty men killed, among them PFC Richard Ignatius Trujillo, who became the first Hispanic casualty of WWII.

I could not find much information on PFC Trujillo except that he was from Montana.  Perhaps he appears in this archival video of the USS Nevada.

Celebrating Black History Month: Doris (Dorie) Miller, Pearl Harbor hero

Doris (Dorie) Miller is the first black recipient of the Navy Cross for his acts of bravery during the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. Stationed on the West Virginia, Miller had finished serving breakfast and was collecting laundry when the first torpedo hit.  He reported to his battlestation but it had been destroyed.  Reporting for other duty, he was ordered to help load ammunition into the .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns in the conning tower.  Although he was unfamiliar with the weapon, he began firing at enemy aircraft until the ammunition was depleted.

He helped rescue injured sailors through oil and water to the West Virginia's quarterdeck, saving countless lives.

On May 27, 1942, Miller was recognized by Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet aboard the Enterprise.  He received the Navy Cross for gallantry during combat:

For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.^[9]

He was assigned the position of Petty Officer, Ship's Cook Third Class, June 1, 1943 on the Liscome Bay.  Miller died when the ship was destroyed by the Japanese during the Battle of Makin Island, November 24, 1943.

USS Oklahoma sailor returns home 75 years after Pearl Harbor

Lewis Lowell Wagoner

Lewis Lowell Wagoner was a 20 year-old sailor serving on the USS Oklahoma when the Japanese attacked December 7, 1941.  He was last seen by a shipmate when they jumped off the capsizing ship, into flames on the surface of water from leaking fuel and oil.  It took the Navy 2 years to retrieve all the bodies from the USS Oklahoma, most of them unidentified and laid in a mass grave.

In 2015, the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency started exhuming bodies from grave sites and caskets.  Wagoner was identified from DNA samples submitted by surviving family members and his remains will be shipped home to Kansas.

The agency expects to identify 80% of the Oklahoma's unknown sailors by 2020.




http://my.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20161006/f868db17-0656-4a43-99d4-8f5f13db7b9a

USS Oklahoma Memorial

The USS Oklahoma Memorial, commemorating the 429 lives lost during the attack, the second highest loss of life suffered by Pacific Fleet warships.

The marble columns, one for each of the sailors lost, represent "manning the rails".  As Navy vessels pass through Pearl Harbor, sailors and marines stand at attention along the ships' railing.  

Book review - "Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor" by Robert Stinnett

Okay, let me first start by saying I did NOT finish this book.  I barely started the second chapter when I had to put it down.  The title should really say "The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor according to Robert Stinnett."  Stinnett makes it clear in the foreward that he blames FDR for blatantly provoking Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor and knew ahead of time without question the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941.   Other authors of books I have read on this subject manage to stay objective and state the facts without a certain bias.  Stinnett is not one of these.  From the beginning, he sets out stating FDR is guilty and presents the facts, skewed as they are, to prove FDR's perfidy.

Stinnett ignores the fact that the U.S. was critical of Japan's involvement in China and had made numerous attempts to defuse the situation.  As last resorts, U.S. began to cut off trade to Japan, decreasing and then stopping shipments of oil and metal.  This made a huge impact on Japan and they felt they had no choice to retaliate. 

FDR and his staff were certain this would goad the Japanese into an act of aggression but stood their  ground.  They expected an attack but thought it  would be the Philippines or Guam. 

Stinnett's own soapbox and personal vendetta are clear in his writing and wants to do anything, including leaving out certain details, to force the reader into believing him.

Book review - Pearl Harbor Betrayed by Michael Gannon

It’s futile to critique or say something negative about Michael Gannon’s excellent book on the political climate and subterfuge taking place between the United States and Japan in the first eleven months of 1941.  Cannon based his work on documents surrounding the events that led to the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor when they were unsealed sometime prior to 1999.  

Apparently other books preceded Gannon’s and lay blame on the shoulders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Admiral Husband Edward Kimmel (in charge of the naval forces at Pearl Harbor) and General Walter Campbell Short (in charge of the Army there).  Gannon meticulously addresses those points and manages to dispel them with the facts presented.  And he’s not the only one to take notice.  After the attack, investigations publicly blamed Kimmel and Short for “allowing” the attack to take place, but after the documents were unsealed, Congress posthumously exonerated both Kimmel and Short from blame.

We will probably never know all the facts though since many documents were destroyed after the war.

Gannon boils it down to a catastrophic breakdown in communication.  Among his examples:  Admiral Kimmel not being informed of the collapse of US-Japan negotiations, the intelligence being gathered wasn’t accurate but being passed on as truth (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?), and the infamous McCollum memorandum.

Gannon presents the facts and urges the readers to make their own conclusions.  The only critique I have of Gannon’s work is that it is not an easy read.  He writes well and his presentation is spectacular but I had to re-read several passages to understand his meaning.

I appreciate the work even more now I realize over 2400 men and women were not sacrificed just to pull America into WWII.

Battleship Oklahoma BB-37 by Jeff Phister with Thomas Hone and Paul Goodyear

It’s difficult to dramatize history and non-fiction, because in some cases there is more drama and action in the story that no more can be added. That much is true for just about anything written about the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The sailors on board the USS Oklahoma when she capsized after being hit by at least eight torpedoes had no shortage of drama, action and terror. Over four hundred men lost their lives on the battleship that horrible day.

Jeff Phister and Thomas Hone teamed up with USS Oklahoma survivor Paul Goodyear write Battleship Oklahoma, BB-37, which appears to be the most comprehensive account of the tragedy from the sailors’ point of view to date.

Phister, Hone and Goodyear interviewed dozens of living survivors to recount a minute-by-minute timeline of the event starting at 7:55am when the attack began until the last man was rescued from the hull over two days later.

The authors recreate the men’s movements and their escape from the Oklahoma based on their positions in the ships. In successive chapters, they chronicle the men on deck, then below decks and finally the lower decks and the hull. When the attack began, many men fled for cover below decks as they had been trained to do during an aerial attack. Another protocol required the hatches to be sealed, which in turn sealed the fate of many men in the belly of the ship. By the time it was realized that the Japanese were using torpedoes, it was too late. The Oklahoma had been hit twice and was starting to list.

Some of the accounts get graphic as one survivor witnessed nine of his fellow sailors crushed by artillery as it rolled out of its spot when the Oklahoma tilted. Others watched friends drown, unable to save them. Two men were asphyxiated by toxic fumes created by cutting torches when a rescue crew ignored warnings of cork lining the room where the men were trapped.

It took over two years to right the Oklahoma and get her afloat so she could be towed into dry dock. During the latter months of her salvage as she was being patched to pump water out of her lower decks, the crews had to deal with the bodies of the sailors submerged for so long. Each one had to be treated with utmost care. Of the 429 who died, 380 still remain unidentified. Thirteen bodies have never been found.

With advances being made in DNA research and testing, efforts continue to identify the fallen sailors so they can be given a proper burial.

Battleship Oklahoma BB-37 is moving tribute to all those aboard her on the day in infamy.

Third day (cont.) - USS Missouri

More pictures from the USS Missouri.

The guns of the USS Missouri looking over the USS Arizona Memorial and downtown Honolulu.

The Captain's Quarters.

The movies "Tora, Tora, Tora," and "Pearl Harbor" would have you think this is a control tower but it is actually a dive tank for practicing scuba dives.

These two buildings survied the attack on December 7, 1941 and still stand to this day.

Third Day - USS Oklahoma

I have wanted to visit the USS Oklahoma Memorial since it opened a couple of years ago. It is located on Ford Island just outside the USS Missouri Battleship Museum.

On the list of sailors who were lost on the USS Oklahoma when she capsized, I found Francis E. Dick. This is my grandmother's maiden name so he could be a relative. I'll have to find out.

No one was going to sell her for scrap. She was a typical Oklahoma woman and too proud to end up like that. She rests peacefully at the bottom of the ocean.

Each post stands for a fallen sailor.

The U.S. Flag over the memorial.

Second Day (cont) - USS Arizona

The USS Arizona Memorial as viewed from the USS Bowfin Museum and Park.

It looks like a white chapel sitting on the harbor.

I didn't realize until we were there that the memorial is only accessible by boat.

The flags of the battleships destroyed during the attack on December 7, 1941.

Parts of the ship are still visible above water.

Part of the moor where she sat that day is also still visible.

Note the sunken ship just underneath the surface.

Oil continues to seep out at the rate of a quart a day. It's said that the oil drops are the tears of the sailors who died with her that day.

The room at the far end has a list of all the sailors lost in the attack.

The windows in this room look out onto Ford Island and Pearl Harbor, giving the sense of stained glass in a church.

A solemn yet beautiful memorial.