Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's World War II Odyssey (Now Hear This Series)

Rating:
Summary: A must.
Review: A great personal account of life in the Pacific during the war. Very interesting. A must for anyone interested in military history.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful memoir of the life of a young Navy sailor during
Review: Alvin Kernan's "Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's World War II Odyssey" is a wonderful memoir of the life of a young Navy sailor during World War II. Written in a humorous and sophisticated writing style, it provides the reader with a strong sense of what it was like for a young boy to leave his home and spend four years growing up in the midst of a war at sea. I am sure that Kernan's experience parallels that of my grandfather, who left rural Arkansas for the first time ever as a young 17-year old to take part in large Pacific invasions. If only young people today could understand the sacrifice and hard work that these young men faced. Kernan vividly makes his youth come to life with "Crossing the Line." A must read for avid readers of Navy and World War II subjects.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful memoir of the life of a young Navy sailor during
Review: Alvin Kernan's "Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's World War II Odyssey" is a wonderful memoir of the life of a young Navy sailor during World War II. Written in a humorous and sophisticated writing style, it provides the reader with a strong sense of what it was like for a young boy to leave his home and spend four years growing up in the midst of a war at sea. I am sure that Kernan's experience parallels that of my grandfather, who left rural Arkansas for the first time ever as a young 17-year old to take part in large Pacific invasions. If only young people today could understand the sacrifice and hard work that these young men faced. Kernan vividly makes his youth come to life with "Crossing the Line." A must read for avid readers of Navy and World War II subjects.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful memoir of the life of a young Navy sailor during
Review: Alvin Kernan's "Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's World War II Odyssey" is a wonderful memoir of the life of a young Navy sailor during World War II. Written in a humorous and sophisticated writing style, it provides the reader with a strong sense of what it was like for a young boy to leave his home and spend four years growing up in the midst of a war at sea. I am sure that Kernan's experience parallels that of my grandfather, who left rural Arkansas for the first time ever as a young 17-year old to take part in large Pacific invasions. If only young people today could understand the sacrifice and hard work that these young men faced. Kernan vividly makes his youth come to life with "Crossing the Line." A must read for avid readers of Navy and World War II subjects.

Rating:
Summary: accurate description of life "on the line"
Review: As a Vietnam carrier vet I found this book to give an accurate and previously unkown to me view of life on the line during WWII. Things hadn't changed much in the Navy when I went to sea on the USS Oriskany 1966/1967 & USS Hancock 1968 in the south china sea off the coast of N Vietnam. Very well written and fills in much naval history but from the guy in the trenches.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting book.
Review: Good story of a young man coming of age during the most exciting period of WWII. Includes fascinating first-person accounts of carrier warfare.

Rating:
Summary: An enlisted mans experiences in WWII Navy.
Review: Having read numerous works written either personally or by ghost writers by officers. I have especially enjoyed reading how navy life was from the perspective of the enlisted man. I served as USN enlisted and can relate to the authors' feelings and experiences. A must read book for all WWII history buffs. Mr Kernan deserves high praise for his efforts.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent story of a real american sailor.
Review: I read at least 10 books a year on WW 2. This one is outstanding. If you only read one book on the aviation war in the pacific, this is it. It reads easy and is difficult to put down. An unforgetable story of one man and his journey through the war.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, moving, fantastic read
Review: I've read a thousand books about WWII, many of them about the Pacific theater. But this book is just amazing -- the story of the great events (Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway)told from the point of view of an enlisted man who lived the life of an ordinary sailor while the admirals were plotting grand strategy. It's impossible to get across how poignant and exciting this book is: you feel as though you were 18 years old, growing up in the waning years of the Depression, and then wandered into the Navy just before all hell broke loose at Pearl and America was plunged into the greatest chapter in her history. Kernan captures the gritty details of daily life in the Navy -- the slow, mind-numbing tedium of chipping rust off the anchor chain of a aircraft carrier, each link 3 feet long, the gunner's mate who stays drunk on the alcohol used to clean bombsites, the insanity of the greasy, heaving deck of a carrier as planes return from their missions, with damaged planes instantly and uncermoniously dumped over the side to make room for the next to land. The account of Midway -- the dive bomber pilots nursing their planes home, low on gas, then landing with difficulty, then getting out of the cockpit and jumping up and down on the deck and shouting and laughing, wild with excitement because they had just singlehandedly destroyed the Japanese navy in an action lasting only a few minutes -- is something that will stay in my mind forever. Kernan is a brilliant writer. There's nothing "literary" about Crossing the Line: anyone can read it and will just be swept along by the story, the way I was.

Rating:
Summary: Spare, lucid, and thoroughly unforgettable.
Review: Kernan says the most with the least words. This is the mark of a truly great writer; and the fact that I clearly remember every single scene and event in Crossing the Line -- after several years -- tells me that this is a truly great book. I lack the words to express my admiration of the author and my awe of his past.