Introduction
I want to thank Mr. Henry Stokes at the Memphis Commercial Appeal
for permission to publish this document on the internet. He asked
that I mention their site
gomemphis.com
in the this document which is their internet address.
This compilation was made from a section of the feature "BYGONE DAYS"
which was called "World War II 50 Years Ago." This section appeared
daily from December 7, 1991 through August 15, 1995. My reason for
making this compilation was to print a booklet which could be distributed
to members of my World War II Navy PBY squadron, VP/VPB54, which served
for two deployments to the Pacific area during the period December 1942
through March 1945, during our Nashville, Tennessee reunion in October
1996. When another one of my efforts, a compilation of the War Diary
for this squadron was scanned into the internet by Tom Doty I felt that
there might be an interest in this book by the general public or at least
that part of the general public who might be interested in a brief history
of the happenings during that period of time. So here it is
and I hope you enjoy it.
Bob Blankenship.
