Posted on February 28, 2020 by Rod Wagner
All the Gallant Men is the Nebraska Center for the Book’s
2020 One Book One Nebraska selection. Donald Stratton’s memoir stems
from his remarkable experience as a naval seaman serving on the USS
Arizona. Stratton was among the survivors from the December 7, 1941,
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The book is the only memoir written by a
USS Arizona survivor.
Stratton’s book is not one that I would have selected to read on my
own. I read it because of its nomination for the One Book One Nebraska
program. It didn’t take many pages before appreciating Donald Stratton’s
story. It is remarkable and inspiring. The book is much more than an
account of the Pearl Harbor attack. Donald Stratton’s life is chronicled
from his early years growing up in Red Cloud, Nebraska, joining the
Navy following high school, military experience as a seaman. Later,
Stratton traveled the world as a skilled commercial diver in the oil
industry.
Stratton was severely burned during the Pearl Harbor attack but
managed, along with a few others, to climb hand-over-hand on a rope to
an adjacent ship, an astonishing feat considering the 70 feet length and
the burned hands of the seamen and the fires burning below. The rope
was thrown by Joe George, a sailor from the other ship. The rope throw
was a heroic act that was never fully rewarded because George disobeyed
an order to cut the lines that tied the two ships. Without the rope,
these sailors would have perished. Stratton had a long and painful
recovery. Even so, he endured and with determination reenlisted in the
Navy. Offered a non-combat post, he instead chose to return to a
battleship and rejoin the war in the Pacific.
Donald Stratton’s story is dedicated to preserving the memory of the
men aboard the USS Arizona – those that died and those that survived. In
Stratton’s words: “I have tried my best to express what I could about
what I experienced that day. It isn’t enough, though, because it is only
one side of the story. The other side lies an ocean away. When you read
a statistic, like 2,403 dead, it says so little. A statistical death is
only the skeletal remains of a life. Without flesh and blood; its
beating heart or its winking eye; its quick wit or its contagious
laugh.”
I hope that many Nebraskans will read All the Gallant Men and that the book will lead to more stories about the experiences and sacrifices of those who serve and have served.
Ken Gire deserves recognition for his collaboration with Don Stratton
to bring Stratton’s story to print. How that came about is an
interesting story in itself (see writer’s postscript).
Described by family members as a humble and generous man, Donald Stratton passed away on February 15, 2020.
Donald Stratton and Ken Gire. All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor. HarperCollins. 2016.
This review was posted on the Nebraska Library Commission blog February 28, 2020, see the original post here: http://nlcblogs.nebraska.gov/nlcblog/2020/02/28/friday-reads-all-the-gallant-men-by-donald-stratton-with-ken-gire/
