The Navy I Remember

About the Book

Military history through the ages has been enriched by the men without whom wars could not be fought--the enlisted men of the world's fighting forces. They were known by many nicknames--GIs, Grunts, Tommies, Doughboys, Gyrenes, Gravel Grinders, Ground Stompers, Swabbies and many more lost in history. Enlisted men have occasionally written books, but far more of their writings have been letters and diaries. Those writings that have survived were usually written during a pause in action and they express deep emotion such as loneliness and despair. Like news reports, they reflect events recently experienced or fears of things to come. Now we have a book that is the author's personal account written many decades after his long tour of duty in the United States Navy.

Ralph Danklefsen, Chief Warrant Officer USN (Ret), joined the Navy in 1931 and his Naval career ended in 1957. The years he focuses on are not only the war years; he recalls the fading images of the peacetime Navy of the twenties and thirties, the days of four-pipe destroyers, steam driven ships, and station duty in the Asiatic Fleet. His book is funny, cheerful, exciting in a dead-pan way, and authentic. Ralph writes from a vivid memory in a sailor's dialect that sounds realistic even to those of us who weren't there. When Ralph sits down at his word processor, he just naturally slips into sailor talk--and a smart editor let it be.

Lurking behind tales of the US Navy between wars is the memory that during the early years of Ralph's enlistment nations were preparing for the Second World War. Sinister events were building to a climax in Europe and Asia. If the diplomats failed to recognize the pending danger, enlisted men can't be blamed for preferring to think about liberty in Shanghai or Rome.

       And why not? How else could a swabbie see the world and meet the Pope of all people? Ralph is a Lutheran, but who cares? Those were carefree days.

      Richard Linkroum

About the Author

just wants back cover quotes