This is an amazing tale of a PT boat officer who expected to spent the war safely in Naval Intelligence, until he got 'hooked' on the PT boats. It covers his training and war experiences, where he came close to death too many times to count.
What I liked was how he explained his 'heroism" as just being too scared to talk, too dumb to know what he was getting into, or misunderstanding what was going on in the briefings.
As a former Marine I was really interested in the time he spent on enemy shores with WW II Marines, sharing their danger, risking his life for them, and being used for "target practice" by Japanese troops.
But by far, the most heart-warming tale is his rescue of Japanese army troops in the water after their ship was sunk and his meeting with one of them decades later.
If you read the book "They Were Expendable' and were impressed by it, I hate to be the one to tell you that many of the stories in that book never happened. The book was doctored to serve as a propaganda tool. But "PT 105" is a real story about the men who risked their lives daily in close encounters with the enemy.
What I liked was how he explained his 'heroism" as just being too scared to talk, too dumb to know what he was getting into, or misunderstanding what was going on in the briefings.
As a former Marine I was really interested in the time he spent on enemy shores with WW II Marines, sharing their danger, risking his life for them, and being used for "target practice" by Japanese troops.
But by far, the most heart-warming tale is his rescue of Japanese army troops in the water after their ship was sunk and his meeting with one of them decades later.
If you read the book "They Were Expendable' and were impressed by it, I hate to be the one to tell you that many of the stories in that book never happened. The book was doctored to serve as a propaganda tool. But "PT 105" is a real story about the men who risked their lives daily in close encounters with the enemy.
