Good Night Officially: The Pacific War Letters of a Destroyer Sailor (Reville Book)

The Moluccas Islands; the invasions of Leyte, Mindoro, and Luzon; Iwo Jima; Okinawa—these and other important naval actions of World War II are vividly recounted by an enlisted sailor and former journalist, Orvill Raines, in poignant and graphic letters to his wife.

The story of the young sailor and his shipmates aboard the destroyer Howorth, serving in the Pacific in 1944 and 1945, comes alive in Good Night Officially, first published in 1994. Edited and introduced by historian William M. McBride, the letters tell of the routine and boredom, fear and bravery of those who reclaimed the Pacific for the United States and its allies. They also tell a sweet and sad story of the love of Raines for his wife—sad, because Raines, posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, was killed in an air attack on April 6, 1945. This volume bears testament to the sacrifice and victory of Raines and his fellow “bluejackets.”