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For
the first eighteen months of
America's war against the German
submarines operating off its
Atlantic and Gulf Coast shores,
the nation had little to fight
back with except for the
civilian volunteers of the CAP
Coastal Patrol--brave men flying
single engine land planes far
from land to try to locate and
attack the underwater menace.
They flew more than 24,000,000
miles over water, spotted 173
submarines, dropped bombs or
depth charges against 57 of
them, and were officially
credited with sinking or
damaging at least two. These
accomplishments were paid for
with the loss of 90 planes and
the lives of 26 Coastal Patrol
members, most of them perishing
far at sea.
This is the story of the
unheralded volunteers as told by
more than two hundred survivors
of the fight--the pilots,
observers, mechanics, radio and
plotting board operators,
linemen, guards, and office
workers who served at twenty-one
Coastal Patrol bases reaching
from Bar Harbor, Maine to
Brownsville, Texas. Now in
their seventies and eighties,
these men and women tell of the
satisfaction in serving their
country, their excitement with
daily base activities, their
ingenuity in improving the often
primitive conditions in which
they lived and worked, and their
dedication in returning to the
fight after harrowing crashes
and ditching of small
planes in the ocean. More than
one thousand of the three
thousand who served in the
Coastal Patrol at one time or
another are mentioned by name.
Book
Review. CAP News August 1997
Lt.
Col,. Leonard A. Blascovich
CAP National Historian
I
received this book in the mail
with a letter asking me to
possibly review it. So I
cracked the book and started to
read.
From
the start, I was mesmerized, I
grabbed a cup of coffee and 141
pages later I had made my first
dent in a book I truly could not
put down.
The
various first- and second-
person stories, vignettes and
photographs of Civil Air
Patrol's Coastal Patrol were
outstanding. I found myself
transported back to the dark
days of World War II, around
1942 and '43 and looking at
events through the eyes of CAP's
unheralded warriors. Warriors
who flew more than 24 million
miles, spotted 173 submarines
and sunk or damaged at least
two.
The
stories, as told by more than
200 members, are funny, poignant
and set whit pathos. They
provide a stark realization --
CAP would not be the great
organization it is today without
the magnificent efforts of these
heroes. They were real people
-- founders of a beneficial
volunteer organization.
Mr.
Keefer clearly has the ability
to gather the thoughts of those
who fought along America's coast
line. He descriptively captures
their incredible experiences.
He makes that part of history
flow.
As I
turned the last page, I realized
this was the most informative
and truly enjoyable book I had
read in some time. In fact, I
put it right up there with the
"Flying Minute Men." Bottom
line: It should be in every CAP
member's Library. Now I think
I'll sit back and wait for the
movie!
Curators Comments:
What
more can I say, Lt. Col,.
Blascovich has said it all,
except where you can purchase
this outstanding book.
COTU
Publishing
P. O. Box 2160
Reston, VA 20195-0160
703-742-8260
$32.95 hardcover, 544 pages, 217
photos and maps |
