As I write this Newt and I are running around NYC promoting the launch of “Days of Infamy.”    It can get hectic, even a bit intimidating when you walk into a book store and four hundred people are lined up for copies.   Newt might be use to it, but as a writer I am a bit more of a recluse.   Another thing, of so many, that I admire about Newt is that he is inexhaustible.     Regardless if it takes an hour, or three hours, there is a kind word for every person, and whenever we spot an elderly vet in the crowd, a proud gentleman wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with “Big Red One,” or “Pearl Harbor,” there is an exchange of looks between us, an extra moment to shake a hand, to offer thanks.    Newt and I just write about those days,  the man we are shaking hands with, lived it, endured it, and gave us the freedom to gather peacefully, sixty five years later.    It is always a touching moment for us.

 

   I always have a few butterflies in my stomach on launch week for a book.    Is it really up to the best we could have done?   Given that we are writing about events within living memory of many Americans, do we do it justice an honor?  I hope readers, especially the vets, give us a thumbs up on this one.

 

   Last year, while on signing tour in Hawaii, we wrapped things up on the morning of Memorial Day.    I took my daughter Meghan, one of my closest buddies “WEB Griffin Jr.”  (Bill Butterworth IV) and we went to the Punch Bowl,  often referred to as the Arlington of the Pacific, where nearly 25,000 of our finest sleep the eternal sleep.    What a moment that takes your breath away as you drive in through the entry way to the sunken cone of an extinct volcano and there are twenty five thousand graves, each marked for that special day with a small American flag and as is the tradition in Hawaii, a garland of flowers.    Not ashamed to admit that I cried as I walked through the cemetery, especially the section where brothers rest side by side, and the graves of the unknown marked “December 7, 1941.”    It is humbling beyond any words I can find to describe.

 

   On a very personal note I hope “Days of Infamy,” though a work of fiction, pays honor to their memories.    Of all the moments in the book, as we were writing it, two haunt me the most.   One is the casualty clearing area aboard Enterprise after it is hit.   I garnered much of that experience from interviewing an officer who was aboard the fabled “Franklin” when it was hit, later in the war.    The other was a scene involving a young pilot, surviving three missions in one day, sitting alone in the twilight, that came from interviewing a beloved high school teacher of many years ago, a Wildcat pilot from the Battle of Midway, and how he felt after the fight was over and the realization came that he was still alive, but his life was changed forever.   

 

   And finally a “product endorsement” for a wonderful series.   If you are not already watching it, check out the History Channel’s  “Battle 360.”   It is incredible, the interweaving of CGI and real footage. . .if you are interested in the story of the fabled CV-6 Enterprise, you’ll be enthralled.

 

More this week after I get back from the tour.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill F.