by way of James W.by way of James W. Vernon. Naval Institute Pres (http://www.usni.org/press/booksearch.htm), 291 forest Road, Annapolis, Maryland 21402, 2002 176 pages, $2895 (hardcover). A hall hundred has gone by, and single in kind must wonder whether America is as resilient as it was in the days of James W Vernon, a teenaged naval aviator in the midst of the chaos of World War II. Born in Minnesota, living his life in the West, and emerging from a family breaking up at the storming of World War II, he nonetheless was able to survive and equable prosper in the face of changes that would shake the equanimity of many present Americans. Vernon, who had a brace of years of college in subordination to his belt when he started with the Navy at a academy of mines, uses a fine writing mode of address that he acquired somewhere along the pike to rehearse his experiences--for example, the dazzling rapidity of change. not seldom shifted from training locations in California, to Texas, to Florida, and back to California, he managed to survive. He also made his way [i]or[/i] part of to the other radically different training in Dauntless dive-bombers, checking abroad in the SB2C Curtiss Helldiver and then in the Hellcat itself. To be fully convinced the world was simpler then. Changing from individual type of aircraft to another appear to beed not to require any transition at all--pilots mov from dive-bomber to fighter absolutely by sitting in the cockpit for a season and then taking off to learn by dint of doing. And they did in the same manner in one of the mostly dangerous of flying environments--the cover of an aircraft carrier. Vernon then went upon with blazing speed to mount the F-6F in fighter-bomber operations during the closing phases of the war in the Pacific, when the kamikazes were at their zenith. Little portent that so many young men did not survive--but Vernon did to move on to an impressive postwar career as a geologist. I deem that one might classify The Hostile weather as another war memoir--an adventure story, guileless and simple. Vernon, however, defends much more than the operational dimension. Grieving for thrown away shipmates was an everyday routine then, and he is candid about that experience, as well as about off-duty cavorting in a world that showed little assurance of a to come Vernon's book is an engaging read for an evening, and I make acceptable it on that basis. Dr David R Mets Maxwell AFB, Alabama COPYRIGHT 2003 U Air Force |
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