Autobiography

Gated Grief: The Daughter of a GI Concentration Camp Liberator Discovers a Legacy of Trauma

Title: Gated Grief: The Daughter of a GI Concentration Camp Liberator Discovers a Legacy of Trauma
Author: Leila Levinson
Genre: Creative Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction, Autobiography, History
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1934980552

After the death of her father, a World War II Army doctor, Leila Levinson discovered a concealed box of shocking photos he had taken of victims of a Nazi slave-labor camp. "A foot emerged from the chaos of countless bodies, a leg. Grotesquely frozen faces. My fingers turned the photo over: Nordhausen, Germany, April 12, 1945."
Intuiting that the photos might be clues to her father’s cold silence and detachment, his intolerance of grief or sadness, she became a detective, finding and interviewing dozens of World War II veterans who also liberated Nazi concentration camps. Veteran after veteran demonstrated ongoing pain and shock. “My mind froze.” “I was never the same.”
Still traumatized by the unimaginable horrors they found, most of the veterans have spoken very little of what they witnessed, not even to their spouses or, as decades passed, to their adult children and grandchildren. “No words could convey the horror.”
As many liberators opened up to Levinson, their recalling long suppressed memories created closure for them as well as for her. Gated Grief weaves their eyewitness accounts with Levinson’s own story to portray the trauma that has followed the veterans and shaped their children’s emotional lives. Gated Grief, which includes dozens of her father’s and other veterans’ never-before-seen photos, concludes with the author’s journeying to Nordhausen in a necessary attempt to reconcile her own life.

Author(s) Mentioned: 
Levinson, Leila

Lucky Enough (Audio)

Title: Lucky Enough (Audio)
Author: Eddie Beesley
Genre: Audio Book
Reviewer: Joyce Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0966327675

In August, 1965, Marine Corporal Eddie Beesley stepped on a landmine near Chu Lai in Vietnam. The resulting explosion changes his life forever. Lucky Enough is the inspiring story of how Eddie dealt with the most terrible moment of his life.

Author(s) Mentioned: 
Beesley, Eddie

First Hellcat Ace, The

Title: The First Hellcat Ace
Author: Cdr. Hamilton McWhorter III, USN (Ret.) & Jay A. Stout
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0935553681

THE FIRST HELLCAT ACE Cdr Hamilton McWhorter, III, USN (Ret) with Jay A. Stout Though he objected to being called such, Hamilton McWhorter III's service to family and country make him a standout among America's Greatest Generation. A Georgia native whose family roots date from that region's settlement during the 1700s, Mac McWhorter was a naval aviation cadet undergoing training when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. After earning his Wings of Gold in early 1942, Ensign McWhorter was trained as a fighter pilot in the robust but technologically outmoded F4F Wildcat. Initially assigned to VF-9-a fiercely spirited and hard-playing fighter squadron-he saw first combat in November 1942 against Vichy French forces in North Africa. After returning to the United States, VF-9 became the first unit to convert to the new Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter-the fighter the U.S. Navy would use to crush Japanese air power during the long offensive from the Southwest Pacific to the shores of Japan. From mid 1943, Hamilton McWhorter was constantly engaged in the unforgiving and deadly aerial warfare that characterized the battles against Imperial Japan. His fifth aerial victory, in November 1943 off Tarawa Atoll, made him the first ace in the Hellcat, and seven subsequent victories ensured his place in the annals of air-to-air combat. McWhorter's combat service, from the beginning of the war to the last campaign off the shores of Okinawa, makes his story a must-read for the serious student of the Pacific air war. Hamilton McWhorter III retired from the Navy as a commander in 1969. He passed away in 2008. A Marine F/A-18 pilot from 1981 to early 2000, Lieutenant Colonel Jay A. Stout is a combat veteran with over 4,600 flight hours. He has also authored Hornets over Kuwait, which recounts his own experiences during the Gulf War. What the experts are saying about The First Hellcat Ace: "Mac McWhorter not only survived three carrier deployments in World War II, he earned a reputation as one of the Navy's deadliest fighter pilots. His memoir captures the attitude of his generation-the heroism and the sacrifice, and the return to a loving famiy. It was an era never to return again." --Barrett Tillman, author of Hellcat: The F6F in World War II "Mac McWhorter became a noted Navy fighter ace during World War II, his three carrier deployments characterized by intense combat, the loss of numerous squadron mates, and the pain of separation from his wife and family. His memoir is not the stuff of legends or glamour so often associated with fighter pilots, but a sensitive look at the realities faced by carrier aviators who go in harm's way." --Bruce Gamble, author of Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington "Not only a thrilling account of some of the great air battles of the Pacific war, Hamilton McWhorter's book provides a window through which we can view a generation of young men at war, impressed by their camaraderie and spirit and humbled by the hardships and fears they overcame." --M. Hill Goodspeed, historian at the U.S. Navy Aviation Museum "Today the U.S. Navy's World War II fighter pilots remain less well known than their Army Air Forces counterparts. One reason is that they have left far fewer memoirs, a great loss, because nothing can replace authentic descriptions of fighter combat by those who actually did it. Fighter ace Hamilton "One Slug" McWhorter, a member of elite Fighting Squadron 9, flew nearly the whole war, first over Northwest Africa, then in the 1943-44 Central Pacific offensives, and finally in the grim assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and in the skies over the Japanese homeland. Vividly written, The First Hellcat Ace is an important contribution not only for the Pacific but the air war in general." --John Lundstrom, author of The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to MidwayMWSA Review

Author(s) Mentioned: 
Stout, Jay
McWhorter III, Hamilton

Is Anybody Listening?: A True Story About POW/MIAs In The Vietnam War

Title: Is Anybody Listening?: A True Story About POW/MIAs In The Vietnam War
Author: Barbara Birchim with Sue Clark
Genre: Non-Fiction, Autobiography
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1420837486

Thirty-five long years and I was still seeking answers. If I could make someone in the government listen to the facts, I knew they'd want to act on them. After all, who wouldn't want to find one of our POW/MIAs from the Vietnam War? IS ANYBODY LISTENING? tells of dignitaries, presidents and those involved with the POW/MIA issue as I've known it since November 1968 when my husband, a Special Forces officer, became missing-in-action. The pages reveal my feelings and torment during my many trips to Southeast Asia in search of answers, and my frustrations while wandering the halls of Washington D. C. for help. The book was written to show the issue's insidious cover-up and my commitment to the truth.

Author(s) Mentioned: 
Birchim, Barbara
Clark, Sue

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