Dan Crisp in World War II
Not long ago, I read the book BAND OF BROTHERS by Stephen Ambrose. In the book, Ambrose interviews several surviving WWII veterans of the 101st Airborne Division, gaining priceless factoids about their experiences in Europe. The thought suddenly occurred to me that it would be nice to capture the war experiences of the men in our own family so that their service will not be forgotten by succeeding generations.
I grew up listening to Uncle Dan’s sea stories, so I decided to start there. I’ve done some internet research and found out everything I could concerning Uncle Dan’s experiences in the Pacific during WWII, and I’ve collected it all here for easy perusal. If I’ve gotten anything wrong, please forgive me, and please send me the corrections. If anyone has anything they’d like to add, please e-mail it to me at recooke@qwest.net.
From what I can remember of the stories Uncle Dan told me, the two events that had the most significant impact on him, as a young eighteen year-old sailor, were the sinking of his first ship, the Aludra, and the invasion of Bougainville, New Guinea. Thus, I’ve broken this article up into two parts.
