by Brett Ashton
And occasionally, you have to fight. You do have to put a stop to it, to preserve as much life as possible. Sometimes that does involve lopping off a few heads to save the greater number of people from the insanities of a country that has obviously gone mad. But you don’t have to hate them.
The minute you succumb to the urge to take revenge, to kill just to get even or to hate them, you have given in to the one thing that, left to run unchecked, will keep mankind locked in a state of war, to a greater or lesser degree, for all of time.
It’s the most dangerous enemy mankind will ever face. It isn’t the Japanese or the Germans or anybody else. And it isn’t the bombs or ships or planes. The real enemy is vengeance.
Author’s Notes and Acknowledgments
One might consider it would be counterintuitive for a fiction author to destroy his own illusions at the end of his own work. In this case, I think the actions of the real men involved in the actual historic events noted in this book are important enough to justify the risk to my own work and be brought to light. Very often the History Channel will do a “History versus Hollywood” for a movie that covers actual historic events. You could think of it as me just saving them the trouble of research if you like, but that’s not the real point.
This, as I said at the outset, is a work of fiction. But in order to put my character in where I wanted him to be, I had to bump several real people out of the way. This, I assure you, was not intended to be disrespectful but instead to tell a story of how these men lived and fought for all of the free people of the world and at the same time try to avoid “putting words in the mouths” of the real men in those situations. It was a hard line for me to walk between writing a fictional story that would both honor these men for their service and sacrifice, and, at the same time, restrain myself from putting actual people into situations that they never actually faced; or more importantly, taking them out of the events they really did participate in. In the end, I had to do a little bit of both to make my storyline work. So in order to keep from pulling any regret in on myself, as a result of stepping on these men’s toes, I decided to write this to set the record straight.
First off, Jacob Scott Williams is a fictional character; however, there is an officer who escaped from the battleship Oklahoma, pretty much in the manner I described. How I came on this man’s story I can’t disclose here. Part of the problem being I don’t know what his real name was. But I’m sure he existed, I’m sure he has long since passed away, and I’m sure the Pearl Harbor story is basically real. I believe he was transferred to the North Carolina at some point, then subsequently to a light cruiser, most likely the Houston. So if you read this and recognize the story and are a friend or family member of this man’s, I would sincerely be interested in hearing from you so he may be properly identified.
Ensign Francis Flaherty and another man not mentioned in the book, James Richard Ward, were real people and did hold flashlights on the exits to allow other shipmates to escape the flooding waters in one of the turrets of the Oklahoma. They did this in obvious disregard for their own safety and posthumously were awarded the Medal of Honor for it. I don’t particularly know if Ensign Flaherty ever served coffee during meetings. I have, however, observed officers in the squadron I was in during my time in the navy behaving as such, and so added it to my story.
Commander Jesse L. Kenworthy, Jr. and Captain H.D. Bode were the executive and commanding officers of the Oklahoma at the time of the attack. I don’t know if Commander Kenworthy acted or responded in reality the way he did in this book, so I tried my best to portray him as a decent man. Also mentioned, Lieutenant Commander William H. Hobby, Jr. was the damage control officer on the Oklahoma at the time of the attack and was killed later in the war.
Lieutenant Commander John Kirkpatrick was the North Carolina’s real air defense officer at the time of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. By all accounts, he did a spectacular job in that battle. As a result, I had to think long and hard before bumping him out of his rightful place in history to replace him by a fictitious character. He is the primary reason for me writing this chapter. I don’t know him personally, but if he should ever read this I have to say, “I’m sorry, sir, for stepping on your toes, and I most sincerely hope this squares us up.” Larry Resen was John Kirkpatrick’s assistant during this attack.
Commander J. A. Crocker was really the Showboat’s executive officer at the time of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. I don’t know if he actually had any brass fall on him from Sky Control. Most likely not.
Captain George Fort was the commanding officer of the North Carolina during part of the war. I don’t know if he ever “grilled” any of the officers serving under him the way he did in this book. From what I can find about him, I’m sure he was a decent man and a very thorough and competent officer.
Commander Lyman A. Thackrey was one of the Showboat’s executive officers. It was all I could do to find his name, let alone anything else about him, so I tried to minimize his part in the story.
Commander Joseph Warren Stryker was the North Carolina’s navigation officer during the early part of the war, after which he became the executive officer. Sir, if you are out there somewhere, next time I go to see the ship, I’ll look for seagulls and bring fish.
The crew of the North Carolina really did meet with the survivors of the I-19 and return a torpedo fragment to them as described. There really was a man who flew to Japan thirty-nine years after the surrender, to return the sword of a former Japanese officer. His name is Walter Shackelford. The man he returned it to was Takuya Seno. All of these men either remained friends to this day, or for some of them, for the rest of their lives.
Last, but certainly not least, is Admiral William F. Halsey. Yes, he was real. Although sometimes I’m sure the Japanese didn’t think so. Enough said.
Oh! I almost forgot Bob Hope, but I think the Japanese probably didn’t believe in him much, either.
Regarding the ships, all of them mentioned in the story were real, except the Buffalo (and possibly the I-57, which I could find no history for). I tried to put them in actual context with history. The battleship North Carolina is still quite real and is now a museum in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is a fabulous place to visit, and there are several books you can read that will tell you of the Showboat’s real adventures. They provided me with the factual information that, in part, is what the story in this book is based on. My favorites are Boys of the Battleship North Carolina by Cindy Horrell Ramsey and North Carolina by Captain Ben W. Blee, USN (Ret)—who, incidentally, was the ship’s intelligence officer during the war.
The exception to the above paragraph is the USS William C. Lawe (DD-763), which was still under construction at the end of the war. The only reason this ship is in this book is because before I joined the navy, I toured this ship when it visited a town close to my hometown.
The Buffalo (CL-84) never existed. There were plans to build this ship, but construction was cancelled at the end of the war. It gave me a wonderful opportunity as an author to take a ship and do with it anything I wanted to with only minimal damage to actual history. The story of its torpedoing is loosely based on the story of what would have been one of her sister ships, the light cruiser Houston (CL-81). Most of the technical facts concerning the Wounded Buffalo chapter came from a book called The Battle to Save the Houston—October 1944 to March 1945 by John Grider Miller. To the actual men of the Houston, I have to say, “Very well done. You’ve inspired me.”
Finis. (Which, I think, is French for “I surrender,” but I’m not very sure about that.)
Special Thanks
This book is dedicated to all the men who, during what hopefully will be the last of the world wars, left their homes and families to defend the free people of the world. It is a work of fiction and is only to be taken as such, but it does include several people who were very real and very heroic in situations they actually had to endure on our behalf. Some information regarding the real people who were involve
d in this story can be found in the notes and acknowledgments at the end of the book.
While the backdrop of this book is obviously military in nature, it is still basically a story of the internal struggles of a man dealing with the violence of war. As such, I have tried to write it in a way that makes it easy for the civilians as well as the soldiers to understand. But for some of the technical terms that could not be avoided, I recommend a good dictionary.
Special thanks also go to my wonderful wife, Janet, and my daughter, Rachel, for their support, as well as to my other daughter, Gwen, for finally taking a nap and giving me a little extra time to work on this!
Thanks also goes to my very dear friends: Nikki, without whose help parts of this story would have vanished in the mist of time; Jeff, whose offhand comment made me decide to rewrite half my story line; and My Favorite Bob for his support in general and eagerness to read it when finished. Without your help, support, and gentle push, I would have never finished this.
I recall the first day that I was on a ship. My squadron was deployed to the USS Kitty Hawk for a Western Pacific cruise. Now, if you have ever seen an aircraft carrier, you realize how easy it is to get lost. After searching for almost forty-five minutes, I finally found the squadron’s personnel office. Everybody was busy unpacking and stowing their gear because we had just arrived at the ship, and seemed to have no time for this young, lost, and very confused airman apprentice who was just trying to take care of the paperwork necessary to get another stripe added to his uniform. The door that led to the officer’s ready room opened and in stepped a commander. He surveyed the compartment to see what was going on, and his eyes very quickly landed on me. He walked over to where I was and with a kind and gentle smile asked, “Can I help you, sir?” I would like to thank USN Commander Robert E. Baratko, my commanding officer in VAQ-130, for teaching me what it really means to be a leader.
Last, but certainly not least, my brother, Dusty, whom I thank not only for his service to our great country but his very valuable input on military matters, as well as his rditing—I mean, editing—tips.
“A big point many people don’t quite understand is—generally speaking, military people are the most peace-loving people around. We have the most to lose. It’s never about glory or wanting to kill and destroy for most of us; it’s about wanting peace. But we have a job to do and will keep doing it until told otherwise, or the job is actually complete.”
—USAF Lieutenant Colonel Dustin Ashton
About the Author
The author in 1984 aboard the USS Kitty Hawk overlooking Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor. Brett enjoys hearing from his readers. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brett Ashton is a United States Navy veteran who served as an aviation electronics technician aboard the USS Kitty Hawk during the last years of the Cold War. He became a World War II enthusiast following his first visit to Pearl Harbor. Currently, he is an electronics technician and musician. He has also extensively studied practical philosophy, which he became interested in during his travels around the world.
Also by Brett Ashton
Lucifer’s Pocket
Copyright
Vengeance: Hatred and Honor
Brett Ashton
Copyright © 2010 Brett Ashton. All rights reserved.
Printed Edition published by Wheatmark
610 East Delano Street, Suite 104, Tucson, Arizona 85705 U.S.A.
www.wheatmark.com
ISBN: 978-1-60494-459-4
LCCN: 2010926075
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