Saving Big Ben
by
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4 January, 1944 Chicago, Illinois Destination: Norfolk, Virginia
Troop trains were all old, tacky and miserable...not a good place for Second Class Gunner’s Mate John Oxler to shake off a heavy hangover. As the train left Chicago and gained speed, it jerked sharply from side to side jolting his head until he thought it was going to explode. His stomach felt like he’d guzzled bilge water. He shuffled his feet, trying to decide whether it was worth the effort to stumble to the head. If he was going to be sick, he might as well throw up here, right in the car. It wouldn’t make much difference in this crappy pigpen. John knew when he started drinking the night before that the alcohol would only briefly ease the intense anger and hurt that seared through his brain and into his heart, but he didn’t care...he was willing to try anything. Now the clacking of the wheels on the tracks pounded in his head like hammers. He slid down into his seat and swung one leg of his six-foot two-inch frame into an empty seat next to him. "Ahhh, hell," he moaned, rubbing his temples. He wondered if he’d survive his hangover, let alone the war. At this point, he really didn’t give a damn if he survived either. "Diane. Damn," he said under his breath. "Why do I have to be thinking of her again?" He pressed his hands over his eyes, trying to shut out every image of her...trying to erase the memory of the pages and pages of mushy letters she’d written, letters always sealed with love-hearts and lipstick marks. "Lies," he muttered, "every last one of them." His thoughts of her wouldn’t go away...thoughts of her beauty, her velvet brown eyes, her dark, glistening hair that flowed down over her shoulders. He could feel her breasts. He remembered how they’d firmed when he touched them, how she quivered when he kissed them. He squirmed in the uncomfortable seat and put his hands over his tanned, handsome face. He was angry with her, but his anger was only a camouflage for deeper feelings of remorse. Three weeks ago he had been shocked by the news that Diane, the woman he loved, was sleeping with another man. A shiver ran down his back at the thought of somebody else making love to her. It made him sicker than he already was. He’d been a fool to trust her. Stupid to believe her. He was angry with her and with himself. He felt betrayed, duped and vulnerable. "Damn," he muttered angrily, "let it go. Be a man. Goddamn it. Be a man." At twenty-three, he’d seen more of life...and death...than men twice his age. He was on the Lexington when she was torpedoed and sunk in the Coral Sea. Hell, he’d been one of the last to leave the ship and one of the very last to be picked up. The faces of good friends, burned to death in the huge gasoline explosions that ripped down the Lexington’s hangar deck, were still vivid in his mind and added to his misery. The destroyer Heermann fished him out of the water. Less than two weeks later he was reassigned to the Saratoga. Twice he’d come under heavy enemy fire in the battle of Salvo Island and five more times in the following seven months. His closest call came on the cruiser Vincennes when she was nearly sunk by a Japanese battleship’s gunfire. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t push these memories out of his mind. On the Vincennes he was almost killed. A Japanese cruiser’s shell ripped the number one gun turret right off the deck. He remembered how the blast threw him violently against a bulkhead and knocked him unconscious. Somehow both he and the Vincennes survived, but five good friends in the gun turret and three more that were handling ammunition, didn’t. The horror of these memories, the loss of all those good friends, was more immediate now...they were compounded by his losing Diane. Diane, his candle of strength and hope, the one person who could help him get through the war...was gone forever. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes again, pushing harder than before.
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About the Book
Saving Big Ben
In Saving Big Ben, the Franklin sails into combat with many of the other famous ships in the 3rd and 5th Fleets; ships like the legendary carriers Enterprise, Lexington, Yorktown, Hornet, Wasp, and Saratoga; renowned battleships like the Missouri, Iowa, New Jersey, South Dakota, Washington, and California. In the story they engage in many of the momentous battles fought in the Coral Sea, Leyte Gulf, the Philippine Sea and the Sea of Japan.
True-life heroes, such as General Douglas MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Admiral Raymond Spruance, Admiral Willian "Bull" Halsey, Admiral Marc Mitscher and Admiral John "Slew" McCain (to name just a few), are all a part of the story. They are featured in their real-life roles as Commanders and Commanders-in-Chiefs-- IN some of the great battles of the war in the Pacific. In this context, Saving Big Ben is a concise, "living" history of the day’s action against the Japanese in Word War II.
There is also a love story that depicts some of the events and values of that historic time. The love, courage, devotion and fidelity demonstrated by John Oxler and Sandy Hearn will be of interest to readers today, who live in an age where these words-- and words like heroism, valor and intrepidity-- are unfortunately sometimes not much more than words in a dictionary. This was a remarkable era-- arguably the most honorable and dedicated period in our history.
About the Author
Dr. Prato received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Denver and his Master of Science and Doctorate in Stress Psychology from California Coast University. He served in Admiral Spruance’s Fifth Fleet as Gunners Mate 3rd Class aboard the U.S.S. Altamaha, CVE 18, a "Jeep" carrier during the later part of World War II. After the war ended he was privileged to board the U.S.S. Santa Fe and met some of the crewmen who participated in the daring rescue of the of the U.S.S. Franklin in the Sea of Japan less than fifty miles from Shikoku. From these meetings came the inspiration to write this book. Dr. Prato is the Chairman of the Board of the Gibraltar Capital Corporation and Gibraltar Realty and Acceptance Corporation. He is a director of the Stress Resource Network located in Pleasanton, California. He belongs to the National Honorary Society in Psychology, the Colorado Speakers Association, and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Kempe Children’s Foundation. Dr. Prato has trained in Japanese Shotokan Karate for seventeen years. He has attained the rank of 2nd Degree Black Belt and is currently training for a 3rd Degree Black Belt ranking. He is the author of three other books, Reflections of a Soul’s Journey, a book of poetry, Certainty from Uncertainty, a text for spiritual enhancement, and Financial Freedom for Women, a book of financial resources exclusively for women. His poetry has been published in the National Library of Poetry anthology The Garden Of Life. He lives in Denver, Colorado.