Ben War with the U S Marines eBook Peter H Green
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The Highest Ranking Private on Guam
Ben’s War with the United States Marines is biographical account of the charming and hilarious World War II misadventures of Pfc. Ben Green--a low ranking but quick-witted individualist who battled the system in order to serve his country with honor and to stay alive so he could return home to his family.
Facing a draft notice Ben, a resourceful nonconformist and Chicago radio producer with a wife and two small children, enlisted at age 35 with the understanding that he would serve as an officer in Marine Corps intelligence. When he learned too late he was too old for the job he’d been promised, he found himself training in the infantry with angry kids half his age. Back home, his wife Alice struggled with making ends meet, managing the household, and fear of the unthinkable, as she waited in terror for word of Ben’s assignment to the next island invasion. His four-year old son, deprived of his doting dad, suffered from the trauma of separation, while his infant daughter didn’t know her father from the man on the cover of Time.
Like Luther Billis in James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, however, Ben dealt with both the absurdity and opportunity of military life. He learned how to work the system and talked his way into an assignment where his knowledge of radio could be useful to the war effort. By default he was running the Armed Forces Radio Station on the island of Guam at the nerve center of the war, when his shining moment was heard around the world.
This book is richly illustrated with Ben Green's sketches, sent home in his letters to describe his life to his children, and family photographs. The reader will relive the travails of a typical family, separated by circumstance and distance, who, like millions of courageous military families, risked life, property and personal well-being for a cause bigger than himself.
Ben's story also bears witness to America's Finest Hour, in Winston Churchill's phrase, when Americans from every walk of life pulled together to defeat aggression and tyranny. In speaking for the citizen soldiers and their supporters back home, it illustrates the social history of rationing and wartime austerity, and for the first time ever, records a unique moment in broadcast history, when Ben Green, de facto station manager, and his cohorts at Armed Forces Radio Station WXLI on Guam, scooped the big news a weary world was waiting to hear.
Ben War with the U S Marines eBook Peter H Green
Ben's War with the U. S. Marines by Peter H. Green is an upbeat war testimonio recalling the experiences of the author’s father on the Pacific front during World War II. The author tells the tale of Ben Green by use of different techniques in this biographical novel: the first-person memories of the author, a dialogue-driven narrative and an omniscient storyline. In doing so, we are provided different perspectives that give the story more of a family-oriented ambiance. Essentially this is the story of a mother and son sharing an episode in the life of a military Dad as they anxiously though patiently await his return home.We are taken through Ben’s enlistment and assignment to boot camp as he goes from the illustrious city of San Francisco to the island of Guam, the US Navy finding itself in a desperate struggle against the Japanese Empire. At the age of thirty-five, Ben initially finds his age as a hindrance as the positions he seek are awarded to younger soldiers. Yet wisdom and maturity has its rewards, and eventually he is well-respected and even admired. This comes despite his short-armed physique which his DI Mac Pherson sees as unbecoming to a Marine rifleman, and his dislike of the prevalent spirit of prejudice against blacks. Yet the greatest adversity comes in the form of absence from the family during the holidays, exacerbated by wartime shortages and the lack of a husband’s income. Yet Ben’s eventual assignment to WXLI Radio as a military newscaster makes his tenure far more bearable. America’s victory over the Axis becomes an extra special event for the Green family when Ben comes home at last.
It is the unbroken family essence of the Greens that makes this story stand out above many works of wartime recollections. The author recaptures the enthusiasm and unflagging spirit of the Forties that faded in the wake of turn-of-the-century realism and its brooding pessimism. Ben's War with the U. S. Marines by Peter H. Green is an experience that shares and shares alike.
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Ben War with the U S Marines eBook Peter H Green Reviews
Many of us only know about World War II through the movies or an occasional story or two from parents who were, for the most part, not very interested in telling their story. Peter Green was fortunate to have a treasure trove of letters from his father's and mother's experience with their war - yes, it was experienced by families not only those who served in the military but also those who waited at home, raising children as single parents and suffering the difficulties of ration coupons and being married without a spouse on whom they could depend. What is especially charming about Ben's War is the significant number of pencil drawings Peter's father included in the letters to give his son a little understanding of his father's circumstances, a means to still communicate across the distance. These drawings alone would make a charming children's book to tell one military person's experience with World War II, father to son. The writing propels the reader back to the 1940's and the lifestyle of families at that time along with the uncertainties and demands military life made on young men forced into a rapid maturity and military occupational specialist jobs outside their preferred expertise. Particularly hard on families were holidays that Ben tried to accommodate in spite of the distance. Told through the letters, tied together by the author, the chatty and informal style makes for an easy read of a difficult subject that sheds an enormous spotlight on the life of military families during World War II, at home and abroad. Real life is not always exciting, and neither is this story that I initially rated four stars for that reason. However, a person who loves biographies may disagree, and I adjusted the rating to five stars for their benefit since the author wrote a quality biography.
Life was about to change for Peter Green when his father Ben left for war in 1944 with an idea of becoming an officer in combat intelligence. From the moment he left his family, Ben Green described in minute detail his daily duties and training, and his own characterful drawings illustrate the book as well as old photographs from the time. The sketches were mainly for Peter's benefit who at the age of five would 'understand what his daddy was doing more easily from pictures'. The book includes numerous direct quotes from the 400 letters Ben sent home to his family during this time.
A popular and sociable person, Ben was always the life and soul of any party with a sartorial elegance and a philosophy to 'dress for success'. With an eye for the ladies, he rarely missed an opportunity for a flirt and a dance, but was devoted to his wife Alice and their two young children - Peter and Linda. Aged 36 and a bit short in stature, Ben was nonetheless looked up to by the younger recruits and soon had a reputation for speaking out for himself and to his superiors. Ben’s posts included that of money guard at the bond office, a 'dream job' for him, leaving him plenty of time for swimming, tennis, libraries and recreation. In his spare time he worked as a bartender at the officers' club. Ben was subsequently sent overseas to the Pacific and eventually ended up at Guam where he was soon assigned to the communications unit and set up the radio network and subsequently the radio station WXLl. The location of Guam was of great strategic importance second only importance to Pearl Harbour. Ben was in fact the first in the world to broadcast the news of Japan's surrender after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
While his father is away we discover a more mischievous and a little more disturbing side to Peter, for example his moods, loneliness and temper tantrums as the absence of his father takes it's toll on Peter's psychological well-being. We feel the anguish too of the father being away from his son while he's growing up and going to school.
Although none of his mother's letters to Ben survived, Peter mentions his mother's owns writings that were every bit as 'wrenching, painful and funny as those that were coming across the waves'. But then they were both from writing backgrounds and with persistence his mother got a foothold in the world of journalism. Reading about her angle was to me as a female fascinating. As a Brit, it was also interesting to note the similar sense of community and pulling together as in wartime Britain as well as the rationing which here carried on into the 1950s. I couldn't help concluding that with such compulsive writers for parents it is hardly surprising that Peter Green has himself ventured into the world of writing.
Occasionally I found there were so many names and details to absorb and I did also wonder why Peter spoke of himself in the third person. I'm imagining that it was to prevent confusion as Ben's letters were also naturally in the first person. However there were some chapters where Peter kept his first person voice which gave an added richness. All in all, I learned a lot from this book – it’s an important social document of the times as well as a fascinating biography about the way one man's unique character, boundless energy and creative vision impacted on and shaped the lives of those around him.
Ben's War with the U. S. Marines by Peter H. Green is an upbeat war testimonio recalling the experiences of the author’s father on the Pacific front during World War II. The author tells the tale of Ben Green by use of different techniques in this biographical novel the first-person memories of the author, a dialogue-driven narrative and an omniscient storyline. In doing so, we are provided different perspectives that give the story more of a family-oriented ambiance. Essentially this is the story of a mother and son sharing an episode in the life of a military Dad as they anxiously though patiently await his return home.
We are taken through Ben’s enlistment and assignment to boot camp as he goes from the illustrious city of San Francisco to the island of Guam, the US Navy finding itself in a desperate struggle against the Japanese Empire. At the age of thirty-five, Ben initially finds his age as a hindrance as the positions he seek are awarded to younger soldiers. Yet wisdom and maturity has its rewards, and eventually he is well-respected and even admired. This comes despite his short-armed physique which his DI Mac Pherson sees as unbecoming to a Marine rifleman, and his dislike of the prevalent spirit of prejudice against blacks. Yet the greatest adversity comes in the form of absence from the family during the holidays, exacerbated by wartime shortages and the lack of a husband’s income. Yet Ben’s eventual assignment to WXLI Radio as a military newscaster makes his tenure far more bearable. America’s victory over the Axis becomes an extra special event for the Green family when Ben comes home at last.
It is the unbroken family essence of the Greens that makes this story stand out above many works of wartime recollections. The author recaptures the enthusiasm and unflagging spirit of the Forties that faded in the wake of turn-of-the-century realism and its brooding pessimism. Ben's War with the U. S. Marines by Peter H. Green is an experience that shares and shares alike.
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