Overview

Naval deck logs require young officers to record mundane details of a ship's condition every few hours. According to a U.S. Navy tradition, the New Year's midwatch log--covering midnight to early morning of January 1--can be entered as poetry. Each chapter of this first book-length examination of midwatch poems presents verses written 1941-1946 aboard a ship engaged in combat during World War II, including celebrated warships like the USS Enterprise and nameless vessels like PC 1264. Historical overviews of the ships' operations, along with biographical sketches of the author(s), relate each poem to its moment in history.

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9781476689265

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A unique and original telling of the story of the US Navy in World War II. A humane and penetrating look at young officers in wartime called on to perform the most incongruous of duties--to write a poem in the place of a deck log. Midwatch in Verse informs, delights, and reveals a side of the US Navy known only to the few. Highly recommended. --Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, Chief International Security and Diplomacy Analyst for NBC News, former Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and author of 2034: A Novel of the Next World War and To Risk It All: Nine Crises and the Crucible Of Decision.

A unique and original telling of the story of the US Navy in World War II. A humane and penetrating look at young officers in wartime called on to perform the most incongruous of duties-to write a poem in the place of a deck log. Midwatch in Verse informs, delights, and reveals a side of the US Navy known only to the few. Highly recommended. -Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, Chief International Security and Diplomacy Analyst for NBC News, former Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and author of 2034: A Novel of the Next World War and To Risk It All: Nine Crises and the Crucible Of Decision.

Author Information

David E. Johnson is emeritus professor of psychology and lives in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he continues to write about U.S. naval history. Gary Guinn, emeritus professor of English, is the author of two novels, short fiction, and poetry. He served as a medical corpsman in the Naval Reserve from 1968 to 1974 and now lives in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

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