Theodore C. Mason

Interesting account of the war in the Pacific written by a radioman who served on battleships and, in this volume, on the USS Pawnee - a fleet tug.
He served in some terrible conditions during the war and holds back very little in his feelings on most things.
The Pawnee is a fascinating vessel to learn about, as it was instrumental in the saving of many ships and the sailors on them.
I would have appreciated more detail on rigging tows and such, but the author was probably wise to not go that deep into the weeds for a book he wanted to have a broader appeal. If you have any interest in naval warfare, this is a good book, I felt it to be the best of his three.… (mehr)

5263. Rendezvous With Destiny A Sailor's War, by Theodore C. Mason (read 9 Apr 2015) I read the author's Battleship Sailor, which tells of his naval career up to and including Pearl Harbor, on Mar 16, 2015. This book ranges over all the rest of his time in the Navy, most of which was spent on the USS Pawnee, which had an extremely active time in the South Pacific, as well as telling some additional re Pearl Harbor. As in the earlier book, Mason is quite caustic as to some of the officers under whom he served, but also tells of the good officers he had. He quotes from accounts of some of those officers--I'd have preferred his own account, but it looked like he was trying to make enough pages for this third book. His account of the very limited knowledge of other enlisted men is sobering, and from my own experience in the Navy I know he is right when he says some of the EMs' prime interest outside of their naval duties is drunkenness and sex- So one has to admire his attitude though it seems he fit in pretty well with the limited views of his fellow sailors. And his comments on some of the abuses of officers in regard to enlisted men appear well taken.-… (mehr)

5255. Battleship Sailor, by Theodore C. Mason (read 16 Mar 2015) The author, at age 19, volunteered to serve a year on active duty with the Navy. He did his boot at San Diego and finished it to be Radioman 3rd--quite a different result than most who went through boot, but it was because of the time he spent in the reserves beforehand. He selected the battleship California as his first duty--and got it. He was taken to Hawaii where the California was and his account of his time on the California is told with some verve, even at times waxing poetic--though the book was written 40 years after the events described. But the author did careful preparation for writing the book, and it seems authentic. The account does not glamorize the activity of sailors on liberty, and for me brought back meories of those times in my own life, though I was not as 'into' typical Navy liberties as was the author. The culmination of the book is the account of the author's December 7, 1941, experience--very well told and shudderingly vivid. I do wish he had told of his life thereafter, but I see he in 1997 published a book on that and I was impressed enough by this book that I want to read the next one: Rendezvlous with Destiny: A Sailor's War.… (mehr)