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PRESS
RELEASES
MILITARY
HISTORIAN WILLIAM L. MCGEE
Among Noted Authors Invited to the 60th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor
National D-Day Museum, New Orleans, December 7 – 9, 2001
SANTA BARBARA, CA, December 17, 2001—Local author William
L. McGee was among an acclaimed group of military historians of
World War II invited to participate in events commemorating the
60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor at The National D-Day Museum in
New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 7 - 9, 2001.
The largest group of Pacific campaign veterans—since the signing
of the surrender documents on the USS Missouri—were
gathered in New Orleans for these events.
McGee was signing his WWII series, Amphibious Operations in
the South Pacific in WWII. Volume I, The Amphibians Are
Coming! Emergence of the ’Gator Navy and its Revolutionary
Landing Craft, was released in 2000. Volume II, The Solomons
Campaigns, 1942-1943, From Guadalcanal to Bougainville: Pacific
War Turning Point, was released this month in time for the
60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The Guadalcanal Campaign began
eight months to the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was
America’s first offensive in WWII.
Other authors invited to sign at the commemorative events included
Col. (later, Brig.Gen.) Paul W. Tibbets signing his Return of
the Enola Gay. Col. Tibbets was responsible for the organization,
training, and command of the world’s first nuclear strike
force. On the morning of August 6, 1945, Col. Tibbets piloted the
Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress used to drop the world’s
first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
The museum unveiled its new Pacific wing, D-Day Invasions in the
Pacific, for WWII battles in the Pacific. The exhibit describes
all of the Pacific amphibious invasions during WWII and follows
the war as it was fought across the vast expanse of the Pacific.
Over a three-day period, the city of New Orleans pulled out all
the stops to honor those described by television news commentator
and author Tom Brokaw as the “Greatest Generation.”
Events began Friday, December 7 at 7:55 a.m., with the pealing of
bells citywide to commemorate the moment 60 years ago that the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor, an event that thrust the United States into
World War II.
A two-hour Pacific Victory Parade followed from 10 a.m. to noon.
Hundreds of WWII veterans of the Pacific Theater, including 13 Medal
of Honor recipients, rode through downtown New Orleans on military
trucks and Humvees, accompanied by military marching units, color
guards and bands, vintage war vehicles, and an aerial review, plus
lots of confetti. The parade passed the museum where former President
George Bush and senior military brass reviewed the troops and veterans.
Dr. Stephen Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers, and a
founding member of the museum, spoke to the crowd about patriotism
then—and now. Actor Tom Hanks, present at the museum’s
opening in June 2000, addressed the crowd and expressed his personal
thanks to all the veterans who made the world safe.
Dr. Ambrose noted that this gathering of WWII veterans provided
an “experience of a lifetime. Never again will such an opportunity
exist to see and speak with such a wide representation of WWII heroes—and
to say thank you.”
Following the parade, crowds filed into the Morial Convention Center
for a “Gathering of Eagles,” a kind of WWII fair. Veterans
mingled, 1940s bands performed, and a USO troupe sang and danced.
A simulated WWII field hospital showed how the wounded were treated.
One interesting statistic: Over 97% of the wounded that made it
to these field hospitals lived—an amazing statistic considering
the wartime conditions.
Other events throughout the weekend included:
“Conversations with Veterans,” a panel discussion
with eyewitnesses to some of the memorable moments of Pacific
battles, moderated by WWII historians Don Miller and Capt. Ron
Drez.
Port
visits by four ships, ranging from a vintage Coast Guard cutter
to a new amphibious assault ship, docked at French Quarter wharves.
A
troupe of 350 re-enactors, aided by vintage aircraft, re-created
the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Marine assault on Tarawa at
Lake Pontchartrain Beach.
A black-tie gala and movie premiere of “A Price for Peace,”
the feature-length documentary on the Pacific battles commissioned
by the National D-Day Museum.
A
Saturday evening USO dance at the Marriott Hotel. A WWII canteen
dance was recreated, replete with a USO song-and-dance team, an
open bar and a buffet dinner. Guests were encouraged to wear 1940s
dress and dance the jitterbug and fox trot.
The
weekend ended on Sunday with a special memorial service held at
the St. Louis Cathedral honoring Pacific war veterans.
McGee, a WWII veteran and retired broadcaster, has garnered glowing
reviews for his meticulously researched and highly readable military
histories. In addition to three books in print on WWII history,
McGee has authored ten books on broadcast advertising and marketing.
As one reviewer said, “If your children or grandchildren have
ever asked, ‘What did you do in the war?’ point them
to William McGee’s books.” (USS LCI National Association,
Inc.)
Visit BMCpublications.com for information on military histories
by William L. McGee.
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“THE
SOLOMONS CAMPAIGNS”
Released in time for the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor
SANTA BARBARA, CA, October 2001—The Solomons Campaigns
1942-1943, From Guadalcanal to Bougainville: Pacific War Turning
Point, by William L. McGee, is the second in the series, Amphibious
Operations in the South Pacific in WWII.
Scheduled for release in early 2002, this hefty Volume II zeroes
in on the Solomons campaigns for several reasons:
First, and foremost, it was America’s first offensive after
Pearl Harbor. Eight months to the day after Pearl Harbor, U.S. Marines
landed on Guadalcanal to halt the advance of the Japanese. They
not only stopped them; they began pushing them back.
Second, the author considers Japan’s defeat at Guadalcanal
the key turning point OF THE PACIFIC WAR. From late 1942, the tide
turned and the Japanese never again advanced.
Third, he wanted to chronicle all operations in the Solomons campaigns—from
Guadalcanal to Bougainville—under one cover. Many books have
been written on the epic battle for Guadalcanal, but this is the
first to provide balanced coverage of the naval, ground, and air
forces—for ALL Solomons campaigns.
Fourth, McGee wanted to continue his coverage of the new shore-to-shore
landing craft and their crews (profiled in his Volume I) as they
earn their battle stars in the Solomons.
“Bill McGee…has not only done some exhaustive research
into the documentation of how the amphibious forces were built,
but has added the words of the men who took the theory and the new
machines to sea. His dedicated work will surely help keep the day-to-day
naval record of the ‘Greatest Generation’ from being
lost.” —John Lorelli, author of To Foreign Shores,
U.S. Amphibious Operations in World War II
The Solomons Campaigns is a 688-page book with 42 maps
and charts to help the reader follow the action, 310 photographs
(many never before published) to bring events alive, plus appendices,
notes, bibliography and index. ISBN 0-9701678-7-3. Softcover. 6
x 9. $39.95. The publication date is early 2002. However, the book
will be available through most bookstores by December 7, 2001—the
60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Readers may also order a copy
directly from the publisher.
For descendents of the “Greatest Generation,” The
Solomons Campaigns opens with a 20-page illustrated "Prelude
To War" recounting the Japanese empire expansion and armed
forces buildup, as well as the evolution of America’s “what
if” war plans, and the escalation of our armed forces. Finally,
the devastating December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor is summarized,
along with several early 1942 Pacific naval engagements prior to
the Guadalcanal campaign.
The book is divided into three parts:
Part One covers the Southern Solomons and the bloody six-month struggle
for Guadalcanal. The relationship between ground fighting, naval
warfare, and air combat is described in considerable detail as first
one side, and then the other, gains the advantage. Seven major naval
engagements are recounted, including America’s severe defeat
at Savo Island, and decisive victory in the three-day Naval Battle
of Guadalcanal—another notable turning point. (Part One includes
an abridged derivative of Volumes IV and V of The History of
United States Naval Operations in World War II by distinguished
historian Samuel Eliot Morison, used with the permission of the
trustees of the Samuel E. Morison Trust.)
“For us who were there, or whose friends were there, Guadalcanal
is not a name but an emotion, recalling desperate fights in the
air, furious night naval battles, frantic work at supply or construction,
savage fighting in the sodden jungle, nights broken by screaming
bombs and deafening explosions of naval shells.” —Samuel
Eliot Morison
Part Two chronicles the Central Solomons amphibious operations in
the New Georgia Islands group, including the five separate landings
at Rendova, Segi Point, Viru Harbor, Wickham Anchorage, and Rice
Anchorage, and the occupation of Vella Lavella, plus three more
significant naval battles. (The invasions in New Georgia marked
the beginning of a sustained American strategic offensive on the
long and bloody road to Tokyo.)
Part Three recounts the seizure of the Treasuries, the Choiseul
Diversion and the Bougainville campaign in the Northern Solomons,
plus two more significant naval battles.
Finally, the many valuable lessons learned during the Solomons campaigns
are summarized—ranging from logistic support and force requirements,
to offshore toeholds and leapfrogging. Most became doctrine in later
Pacific campaigns.
The Solomons Campaigns is based on archival research and
the vivid, personal recollections of more than 100 survivors of
the campaigns. These eyewitness accounts lend an immediacy to the
work that will appeal to the general reader as well as historians
and serious WWII buffs.
The Amphibians Are Coming!, Emergence of the ’Gator Navy
and its Revolutionary Landing Craft, Volume I in McGee’s
Amphibious Operations in the South Pacific in WWII series,
was published in 2000. It has garnered numerous favorable reviews
from magazines such as Sea Classics and Leatherneck,
and veterans group newsletters such as The Elsie Item of
the USS National LCI Association, Inc., as well as dozens of endorsements
from WWII veterans.
Bill McGee joined the U.S. Navy in 1942. He writes from the perspective
of a volunteer enlisted man, one who has been there, done that.
On his first deployment to the South Pacific, he was greeted by
a major air attack, followed by the torpedoings of two navy cargo
ships in his Task Unit—both actions occurring within two weeks
of his arrival in the Solomon Islands.
In the 1990s, McGee authored Bluejacket Odyssey, 1942-1946,
Guadalcanal to Bikini: Naval Armed Guard in the Pacific. While
not a part of the Amphibious Operations series, McGee was "hooked"
and became a serious military historian. Bluejacket Odyssey—a
memoir within a Pacific War history—is a vivid and amusing
recounting of the author’s four-year hitch in the U.S. Naval
Armed Guard during World War II.
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WORLD
WAR II HISTORIAN WILLIAM L. McGEE
To Sign Books Dockside at the Historic LST 325
Mobile, Alabama, Friday, September 21, 2001
SANTA BARBARA, CA, September 10, 2001—Noted World War II historian
William L. McGee will discuss and sign the first two volumes from
his series Amphibious Operations in the South Pacific in WWII,
dockside at the historic LST 325 in Mobile on Friday, September
21, 2001, from 10:00am to 12 noon.
McGee will be in Mobile for the 16th Reunion of the U.S. LST (Landing
Ship, Tank) Association from Wednesday, September 19 to Sunday,
September 23. He will also be signing books at the Adams Mark Hotel,
64 South Water Street in Mobile, the reunion’s headquarters.
The author, a WWII veteran and retired broadcaster, has garnered
glowing reviews for his meticulously researched and highly readable
histories. Volume I, The Amphibians Are Coming! Emergence of
the ’Gator Navy and its Revolutionary Landing Craft,
is a biographical history of the revolutionary WWII landing craft
and their crews.
Volume II, The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943, From Guadalcanal
to Bougainville: Pacific War Turning Point, chronicles the
first U.S. offensive after Pearl Harbor.
For more information, the author may be contacted during the reunion
dates at the Adams Mark Hotel, (251) 438-4000, or visit BMCpublications.com.
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NOTED
MILITARY HISTORIAN WILLIAM L. MCGEE
TO SIGN BOOKS AT LCI REUNION
SILVER LEGACY, RENO, NEVADA, JUNE 4-8, 2001
SANTA BARBARA, CA, May 14, 2001—Noted military historian William
“Bill” McGee will be at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino
in Reno, Nevada, June 4-8, 2001. The occasion is the gathering of
the Infantry Landing Craft (“LCI”) Reunion, and McGee
will discuss and sign his new book, The Amphibians Are Coming!
Emergence of the ’Gator Navy and its Revolutionary Landing
Craft.
McGee is no stranger to Nevada. He first came to Reno in 1947, a
young cowboy from Montana, working his way around the west. He hired
on at Lake Tahoe as a hunting guide. A chance conversation at the
Round Up bar—then Reno’s unofficial hiring hall for
cowboys—put him in the right place at the right time for the
coveted job of “wrangling dudes” at the famous Flying
M E in Washoe Valley. It was the heyday of the Nevada six weeks’
divorce, and the exclusive dude ranch catered chiefly to wealthy
Easterners and the occasional Hollywood celebrity.
McGee had his first taste of broadcasting on Reno’s KOH, as
a part-time disc jockey, “John Friendly.” He later went
on to a thirty-two year career in broadcasting.
Upon retiring in 1985, McGee settled in Incline Village, Nevada,
and took up his new avocation, researching and writing about military
history during World War II in the South Pacific.
McGee will also be signing his Bluejacket Odyssey, 1942-1946,
Guadalcanal to Bikini: Naval Armed Guard in the Pacific, first
published in 1997. Bluejacket Odyssey is a vivid and amusing
memoir of McGee’s four-year hitch with the Naval Armed Guard
in the Pacific, as seen through the eyes of a seventeen-year old
volunteer. McGee draws upon his shipboard journal, combined with
interviews with his former shipmates, and declassified documents
from the National Archives.
USS LCI National Association treasurer Howard “Tiny”
Clarkson had this to say about The Amphibians Are Coming!,
“If your children or grandchildren have ever asked, ‘What
did you do in the war?’ then point them to McGee’s book.
Throughout the book, you will find yourself saying, ‘Yup,
that was us.’ Read this book and I guarantee that you will
have a renewed respect for the guy you see in the mirror every morning.”
Visit BMCpublications.com for more information on William L. McGee
and BMC Publications titles.
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NOTED MILITARY HISTORIAN WILLIAM L.
MCGEE
Will Address LCT Flotilla Reunion
Doubletree Guest Suites, Omaha, Nebraska, April 20-21, 2001
SANTA BARBARA, CA, April 18, 2001—Survivors of World War II
LCT Flotillas will reunite at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Omaha,
Nebraska, on April 20-21, 2001.
LCTs (Landing Craft, Tanks) were part of the newly emerging amphibious
fleet designed during World War II to land men and material quickly
on enemy-held beaches.
World War II military historian William L. McGee will address the
reunion and sign his recently released book, The Amphibians
Are Coming! Emergence of the ’Gator Navy and its Revolutionary
Landing Craft. The book is a biographical history of these
specialized landing craft and their crews, and includes hundreds
of interviews with many of the largely-forgotten crews who were
trained to run their craft at full throttle toward a fiercely defended
beach.
The public is cordially invited to meet and honor these heroic survivors.
For more information on World War II histories authored by William
L. McGee visit BMCpublications.com.
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“BLUEJACKET
ODYSSEY, 1942-1946”
A Memoir Within A Military History
Now Available in Softcover
“Your book brought tears to my eyes. A must read for all veterans—and
their descendants.” –Charles C. Espy, Lt. (jg), USNR,
SS Thomas Nelson, Armed Guard C. O.
SANTA BARBARA, CA, November 2000—Bluejacket Odyssey, 1942-1946:
Guadalcanal to Bikini, Naval Armed Guard in the Pacific, has
been reprinted in softcover and is now available from BMC Publications.
Described as “a memoir within a military history,” from
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to the atomic bomb testing at
Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, author Bill McGee experienced
World War II in the Pacific like few others.
McGee, a Montana country boy, joined the U.S. Navy in 1942 on his
17th birthday. He had to agree to serve in the regular Navy until
he was 21. These minority enlistments were tagged as a “Kid’s
Cruise”—probably by some salty old bosun. But McGee
was no kid when his four-year hitch was finally over.
He was assigned to the Naval Armed Guard, that branch of the Navy
whose mission it was to protect Merchant Marine ships and their
valuable cargo and crew from enemy attacks and sabotage.
After gunnery training, McGee’s “Kid’s Cruise”
threw him in the middle of air attacks at Guadalcanal, and torpedoings
in the South Pacific; carried him through the action in the Western
Pacific; and ended after the war with the atomic bomb tests at Bikini.
He had a front-row seat at the beginning of the Atomic Age aboard
the heavy cruiser USS Fall River, the target fleet flagship.
Along the way he experienced the ups and downs of Navy life—boot
camp in Idaho, life on merchant ships, duty in the Fleet, “stewed,
screwed and tattooed in Tijuana” (well, almost), endless days
of drills, drills and more drills, followed by moments of sheer
terror.
Bluejacket Odyssey is the story of a generation of Armed
Guard, seen through the eyes of a young volunteer. Combining his
own daily shipboard journal with three years of interviews with
former shipmates, records and declassified documents from the National
Archives, and exhaustive historical research, McGee has produced
an engrossing book, all from the unique perspective of an enlisted
man who has been there and done that.
Well-written, the book is an honest, factual story—laced with
humor—that takes the reader for a ride on Liberty ships, Victory
ships, fast transports, destroyers, minesweepers and the heavy cruiser,
USS Fall River. The reader will experience history up-close
at such now legendary places as Guadalcanal, New Guinea, the Marshalls,
Marianas and even kamikaze attacks in Leyte Gulf, the Philippines.
From Japanese Zeros, nuclear tests, and South Sea native customs
to marathon poker games, Bluejacket Odyssey is a close-up
view of the life of an Armed Guard sailor as it really happened.
Author Bill McGee, after his WWII “Kid’s Cruise,”
attended Montana State College, founded and later sold an import-export
company, and began a long and successful career in broadcasting.
He is the author of nine books on retail advertising and broadcast
advertising sales. He and his wife Sandra live in Santa Barbara.
McGee recently completed The Amphibians Are Coming! Emergence
of the ’Gator Navy and its Revolutionary Landing Craft,
the first in a series titled Amphibious Operations in the South
Pacific in World II. He is deep into Volumes II and III, scheduled
for release in 2002 and 2003 respectively.
Bluejacket Odyssey, 1942-1946: Guadalcanal to Bikini: Naval Armed
Guard in the Pacific.
$35.00, Softcover, 546 pages, 250 photos and illustrations, plus
appendices, bibliography and index, 6 x 9, ISBN 0-9701678-0-6. Hardcover
edition published by Glencannon Press, 1997. Revised softcover edition
published by BMC Publications, 2000.
Foreword by C. A. Lloyd, Chairman, USN Armed Guard Veterans of WWII.
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“THE
AMPHIBIANS ARE COMING!”
Newly-released World War II Non-Fiction
Upholds Memory of the “Greatest Generation”
SANTA BARBARA, CA, November 2000—The Amphibians Are Coming!
Emergence of the ’Gator Navy and its Revolutionary Landing
Craft, authored by William L. McGee—a veteran of the
World War II Navy—is the first of a three-volume series titled
Amphibious Operations in the South Pacific in WWII.
The
primary objective of Volume I is to provide a close-up look at the
revolutionary new World War II shore-to-shore landing ships and
craft and the unsung heroes who manned them.
Chapter 1 covers a brief American history of amphibious operations—one
of the most difficult problems in warfare—from the Revolutionary
War to the 1942 Guadalcanal and North Africa campaigns.
Chapter
2 profiles the famed “Green Dragons”—the World
War I flush-deck, four-stack destroyers converted into high-speed
transports (APDs) with accommodations for assault troops—which
filled a pressing Marine Corps need for ship-to-shore delivery
prior to the arrival of the new landing craft.
Subsequent
chapters focus in on the Flotilla Five crews and their vessel
types.
In
case you don’t speak “Navy,” McGee spells it out
for us as needed. For example, LCTs are Landing Craft, Tank; LSTs,
Landing Ship, Tank; and LCIs, Landing Craft, Infantry. The Flotilla
("Flot") Five LCTs, LSTs and LCIs were the first of the
larger U.S.-built shore-to-shore landing craft to be integrated
into an amphibious task force in WWII (Solomons, June 1943).
The biographies of each “Flot Five” vessel type and
crew range from ship design and construction, stateside training,
crew and flotilla formations, to on-the-job warfare training in
the Southern Solomons in preparation for their first invasion of
enemy-held territory.
McGee does a masterful job of conveying the reality of shipboard
life: the tedious voyage from the States to Guadalcanal, with its
drills, breakdowns, and more drills, and the endless waiting followed
by an afternoon of sheer terror during a Japanese 120-plane bombing
and strafing raid.
More than 100 Flot Five veterans were personally interviewed by
McGee for this book. The net result of his diligence: many amusing
and/or heroic stories providing a change of pace from the recounting
of historic events.
John A. McNeill, one of the LCT skippers interviewed for the book,
had this to say after reading the manuscript:
“…a fascinating and accurate history on the landing
ships and craft of WWII and a welcome addition to the short list
of books on the subject…. I look forward to your next two
volumes on the Pacific War. For me, it’s a long-awaited dream
since they deal with my kind of war. You’ve brought great
pride and joy to thousands who were there, and to future generations
who will learn how America fought in the Forties.”
The Amphibians Are Coming! Emergence of the ’Gator Navy
and its Revolutionary Landing Craft. $29.95, Softcover, 308
pages, 110 photos and illustrations, plus appendices, notes, bibliography
and index, 6 x 9, ISBN 0-9701678-6-5, 2000.
In 1997, McGee authored Bluejacket Odyssey, 1942-1946, Guadalcanal
to Bikini: Naval Armed Guard in the Pacific. While not a part
of the Amphibious Operations trilogy, Bluejacket Odyssey
gave McGee the research fever and he became a serious naval historian,
leading to the writing of The Amphibians Are Coming!
Bluejacket Odyssey is a vivid and amusing memoir of McGee’s
four-year hitch with the Naval Armed Guard, which put him in the
middle of South Pacific air attacks and torpedoings, and concluded
with a front-row seat in heavy cruiser Fall River at Operation CROSSROADS,
the atomic bomb tests at Bikini. Bluejacket Odyssey is
now back in print as a revised, softcover edition at $35.00.
McGee is already deep into his next two military histories on amphibious
operations in the South Pacific during WWII which will have their
first printings in 2002:
Volume II: The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943
From Guadalcanal to Bougainville: Pacific War Turning Point
Volume III: Pacific Express: America’s World War II Military
Supply System
McGee
joined the U.S. Navy in 1942. He writes from the unique perspective
of a volunteer enlisted man, one who has been there and done that.
On his first deployment to the South Pacific, he was greeted by
a major air attack, followed by the torpedoings of two navy cargo
ships in his Task Unit—both actions occurring within two weeks
of his arrival in the Solomons Islands. He is the author of nine
other books on broadcast advertising, sales and marketing.
The Amphibians Are Coming! and Bluejacket Odyssey
are available from your favorite bookseller, or direct from BMC
Publications. Visit BMCpublications.com for ordering information.
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