3-17-12
To those of us who are both blessed and cursed with Irish ancestry, Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
I am working on the new Boston book in earnest now – the one I’ve been talking about doing ever since my first book, A Bird’s Eye View was finished. Soon after it was published, my brother Bill and I started this website, Soon after we started the website, we began to hear from folks out there whose father, uncle, brother, grandfather had served on the Boston as well. Would we be interested in his picture? Copies of documents from his service on CA-69 that he saved? Might we be interested in seeing the journal that he kept?
That’s when I realized that a second book needed to be written. Since then, not only have you readers sent me photos and documents, but Bill has made two separate trips to Washington DC to the National Archives. We now have enough primary source material to write two books, let alone one. Oh, and I’ve done a thing or two since then, including three interviews of two original members (plank owners). I have scheduled another meeting later this week back in Massachusetts with another plank owner.
Two of the interviews yielded incredible memories and stories. They also yielded journals – brief eye-witness accounts – that each had kept during his stay on the Boston. I am very excited to say that the new book is LOADED with official Navy photos taken from the Boston and housed at the National Archives, loaded with official War Journals and Captain’s reports and official Action Reports. It will also include the pictures and documents that families of some of the guys have sent me over the last two years. The interviews and their journals will be the thread that weaves the book together.
LAST CALL TO ALL YOU FOLKS WHO HAVE CONTACTED ME AND SAID YOU WERE SENDING ME STUFF FOR THE BOOK. Time is running out.
Did I say I was excited about this? In my interview with George Pitts a couple of weeks ago, he shared this:
I never thought a thing about all that we were doing, being in the Navy — I just wanted to get out, get home, drop everything. That’s what you did. It wasn’t until I got home — and years later the light bulb went on and I realized I was making history out there.
Did I already mention that I am excited about the new Boston book? . . . . . .
steve
This website is devoted just to ca-69 which was the USS Boston from 1942 to 1947. There where many other Boston’s in us naval history. I’ve never seen this book, but if you find it and it’s about THIS Boston let us know!
Have you ever hear of a large format book, spiral bound, entitled: ” U.S.S. Boston My History anbdMy Ancestry”
Mike,
Was your Dad a chief petty officer?, those records aren’t in yet! I’m about to leave town but I can research this when I return next week!
-Bill
I do not find my fathers name on the roster of Boston Men. My Father Clarence Walter Hutson, GMG3/2, 283-54-41 served on the Boston From August of 1942 through January of 1945 when he was sent to Electro-Hydraulics School in Norfolk,VA. Not complaining just offering up a fact evidently missed.
I will attempt to purchase you book. I am an avid reader, and naval history is a topic I have interest in.
Thanks for the work you put forward to make such a book possible.
Mike Hutson LT, USN, (Ret.)