Life on a Tin Can: The Pacific War

Life of a blue jacket on a typical WWII destroyer in the Pacific Theatre is recounted. Description of damage to Pearl Harbor after the December 7th , 1941 attack is given and what conditions were like during this period. Feelings the author experienced after leaving Pearl Harbor on a destroyer attached to a fast carrier task force. First hand accounts of the following actions are covered: February 1942 air attack off Bougainville Island, Battle of the Coral Sea, Battle of Midway, Guadalcanal, The Aleutians, Tarawa Island, Marshall Islands, Mariana Islands, and the Caroline Islands. A blue jacket’s experiences are related, when being commissioned as an officer, describing the move from the crew’s quarters to the wardroom of a new destroyer and meeting a new crew. After extensive training and tests, the new ship traversed the Panama Canal and headed west across the Pacific to join Task Force 58, arriving just at the end of WWII.