Combat Zone

By Matthew Alexander

Journey with a young man as he leaves his home in rural Georgia to serve in the United States Navy during World War Two.  Follow him from enlistment to boot camp to his parrticipation in several invasions in the Pacific Theater.  And on to the occupation of Japan.  Grow with him as he learns about himself, and the world around him.  And finally, see him safely home to his role as part of the Greatest Generation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matthew Alexander
• Release date: Mar 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215902752

Matthew Alexander

Matt Alexander lives in Bishop, Georgia with his family in a house in the woods.  After earning an MBA from a prestigious university, he began a long and rewarding professional career in management.  He has been a naval officer, small business owner, salesman, corporate manager, author, teacher and college administrator.  Through years of dedicated achievement he has learned that while work makes other aspects of life possible, it does not necessarily define you, and it is the other parts that make life worth living.

Book preview

PHOTOGRAPHS

Camp Shoemaker

Fleet City

The Real Enemy!

USS White Marsh LSD-8

PBY Catalina

Loose Lips Sink Ships

Japanese Fleet Under Attack

Turkey Shoot

Sherman Tank

MacArthur Returns

Bob Hope

Kamikazes

Surrender

Geisha

PREFACE

Some one million men passed through the gates of Recruit Training Center Great Lakes between 7 December, 1941 and 14 August, 1945.¹ These were the men who trained to be United States Navy sailors between the day of infamy and the total and unconditional surrender of Japanese forces.  The men who came home after World War Two and became what some have termed the greatest generation.  In spite of these numbers, the majority of recollections penned have come from the officer corps and historians.

While higher rank and scholarly study brought a much broader perspective and understanding of the war in its totality, the reminiscences of the average sailor provide us with the more intimate details of everyday life at war. While this information may not provide any new insights as to military strategy or history, it does help to provide us a glimpse into the human side of the war, to fill in some gaps in the historian’s history, and to explain why these men did what they did.  And how they felt about it.

This is the story of Dewey Otis Lindsay, Jr. of Athens, Georgia, a sixteen-year-old boy who went to war, fought in the Pacific Theater, and came home to rebuild America.  Over thirteen million men and women went into the service during the war; nearly one million never came back or came back physically changed.²

This does not include those who came home with psychological adjustments.  And of course those who stayed on the home front as civilians were also engaged in the war effort in large numbers.

Of the twelve million servicemen who came home, few remain.  The youngest among them would now, in 2023, be about 96 years old; no small achievement in itself.  Of these survivors, we lose over 1,ooo per day.³ Per day.

From an historical perspective, it will be a blink of an eye before all of those who experienced this monumental  event in human history first hand will be gone forever.  Many of these men and women can’t write their own stories or don’t believe their small service is of any importance or interest.

But the life of the average person provides as much insight into human existence as do the stories of the better known great and powerful.  This one life, the life of Navy fightin’ man Dewey Otis Lindsay, Junior, sheds light on the more personal side of the war.

The information in this story was gathered from letters written to and by Dewey, Jr., as well as through lengthy conversations with him from December 2010.  Some of the information comes from the author’s own experiences as a United States Navy officer, and his own knowledge of history.  Other information was gathered from a variety of sources, some of which are public record, as indicated in attributions. In many cases these sources are filled with other resources for those looking for more deeply delving scholarly fare.

Every effort has been made to be accurate and factual.  Any inconsistencies between the facts in Dewey, Jr.’s memory, and the facts in history books can be attributed to the passage of time and scuttlebutt.

After leaving the service in 1946, Dewey, Jr. went to work for Bell’s Food Stores in the Five Points area of Athens, Georgia, and then as a salesman for American Tobacco.  In 1972, he struck out on his own and purchased the local Mayflower Moving Company franchise.  After sixteen years of growing the business, he sold it to his son and lived La Dolce Vita at his lake home with wife Carolyn and their dog Pugsey.  In April of 2011 he was promoted to the Heavenly Fleet Command.

PEARL HARBOR

The early days of December were ushering in a new season across the Deep South.  Even in the furthest reaches of the South, this time of year can bring cold and gray skies, but far away, Hawaii was basking in warm sunshine in what seemed like a fairytale world—until 7 December, 1941.  On that day, Americans across the country, in cities, towns and on farms, had their lives forever transformed.  Like many others around him, Dewey Otis Lindsay, Jr. found himself transported from small town life in Athens, Georgia onto the world stage.

Dewey, Jr. had just celebrated his sixteenth birthday on 1 December, 1941.  For a young boy like him, small town life in the rural South was damn near idyllic.  He didn’t have a car, but he was free to roam and could ride his bike anywhere in or around Athens.  To the movies, the grocery store, or the drugstore.  To an adventure in the woods, in the fields, or at one of several ponds.  On the morning of 7 December, he was off with his friends.  Oblivious to the news, he was in for a rude awakening when he got home. 

We went to the river that day.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it was warm and we were gonna go swimmin’.  I came home and my daddy jumped all over me.  He said I wasn't paying any attention.  He tried to get me to stay there and listen to the radio.  He said with all that goin’ on I should be home listenin’ to the radio.  This was big news.

Before the Internet, cell phones, texts, and chat, there was radio.  You just listened and used your imagination.  There were no pictures or dancers to go with it.  It was slow.  Because of this, news of the attack was slow to arrive—and slow to sink in.

Consider this: from the time the first bombs fell at Pearl Harbor, it was over an hour until the first announcement was made to the general public on the mainland.⁴ By comparison, on the tragic day of 11 September, 2001, the whole world watched live as the disaster unfolded.  For those in the Hawaiian Islands, there was no need for a radio announcement.  They had the whole thing right in front of them in living color.

7:53 AM Pearl Harbor time.  The first bombs drop.

7:58 AM.  A radio message goes out from Ford Island, Hawaii to Mare Island Naval Station, San Francisco.  "Air raid