greenskills.net Blog

Peter Green’s journal of little victories and defeats, funny encounters and random thoughts for his family and friends.

–St. Louis, April, 2006 (gg newswire)

It’s a fast-paced world out there, and I sometimes wonder if anyone knows or cares that I spent five years writing a World War II memoir of my father’s and my family’s arduous, lonely, and sometimes hilarious World War II adventures after his enlistment at age 35, despite having a wife and two children to support, in the United States Marines.

But there were early signs of enthusiasm and acceptance among my first readers. My friend Tracy, a retired General in the Army National Guard, loved the military stories in the book and bought copies for each of his children, one of whom, his eldest son, is serving as an officer on a Navy submarine. My friend Brad, whose wife Laurie is a writer, read the book and bought a copy for his father in Chicago, because it was so nostalgic about those wartime days and the radio broadcasts of the time from my home city. My friend Paula bought a copy to send to her brother, who is now serving in Iraq. Jack Niemi, a former chief of engineering at the St. Louis Corps of Engineers, wrote to say that he was nine when Pearl Harbor was bombed and remembers the World War II years very well. His father had two small children, and never was called up, but studied to take the officer exam in the event that he was. He concludes: “I also remember well the horse-drawn milk wagon, iceman and the coal going down the chute. Thanks again for the good read!” Lew Lynch, an authentic Tuskegee Airman that flew many missions in Europe during the war, who was a neighbor of ours for many years, read the book and liked it. He wrote: “Your dad was a smart cookie who figured out how to make lemonade out of a whole bunch of lemons.”

My immediate family is proud of me, even though they may not come right out and say it. My wife Connie is just relieved that the stories I have been regaling her with for all the years of our marriage are now written down and out of my system. My daughter Lisa, a fifth-grade teacher who puts great stock in books and reading, certainly is pleased to know more about her grandfather, who died when she was barely three years old. She is pleased that she will have something to show her daughter, our first grandchild Kennedy Catherine, about our family history. My younger daughter Lori and her fiancé Jeff, who live in Santa Monica and will be getting married out there this summer, work in computer animation and special effects for the film industry. They even spotted Steven Spielberg at a cocktail party the other day. Their friends ask me when it will be made into a film. And I’ve actually even had them say—and once even a perfect stranger said, while I was describing my story to the proprietor of a Beverly Hills bookstore—that I should pass this scenario on to their colleagues and friends for that purpose.

The event of publication has also created a minor sensation among relatives scattered far and wide and with friends from years ago in our neighborhood back in Chicago. Cousins as far away as Kalamazoo, Sarasota, Phoenix and Cork, Ireland, have called or written to express enthusiam. Some have said, “We had no idea all this was going on at that time!” Others were reminded that Dad was quite a character and that I have captured him just as they remembered him.

But far short of any cinematic ambitions I might harbor, I did the usual things that the son of an advertising man and the longtime promoter of his firm’s architectural and engineering capabilities would do. I didn’t have Simon & Schuster and their marketing machinery backing me up, but instead was in the capable hands of the James A. Rock publishing company. Its talented proprietors Jim and Lynne Rock plan to keep this volume in print for as long as they can sell copies. I decided to take the alternative, more regional approach to marketing: local book signings, newspaper publicity and speaking at local book clubs and such interviews I could get on local radio and television. To date, I have done a few of each type, which are described in my previous (January) post–see below.

In early March, I participated in a local author event at the Ladue, Missouri, Barnes and Noble bookstore. There I met Ryan Jones, author of Datashark, which is a must-read for anyone living today, and partricularly for American voters. This youthful yet worldly-wise author is a pilot, a former aerospace industry employee, a Tae Kwon Do brown belt and a skillful writer, who also has a high security clearance. He projects a scenario in which talented yet alienated hackers are kidnapped by the National Security Agency and are forced to develop systems for intercepting international military communications and rewriting control codes for enemy weapons systems. Military personnel fail to inform the president fully on these clandestine capabilities and the potential impact and side-effects of their actions; high-level politicians and staffers strategize highly complex battle plans that they fail to run past the military and intelligence professionals, and historical “what ifs”that we dread today, such as invasion of Taiwan by mainland China, actually happen, albeit accidentally. The unintended consequences are predictably disastrous. Does this sound familiar? This book has been robbing me of sleep, and although I am not yet finished, it is hard to put down. It is a perceptive and chilling peek into the future of America and the free democratic world. This $13.95 paperback is available at the Ladue Barnes & Noble, can be ordered through any bookstore and is online at www.amazon.com.

Also in March, I presented my dad’s story to a joint meeting of the St. Louis Post and the Scott Air Force Base Post of the Society of American Military Engineers. Although this was admittedly an easy crowd, including many of my longtime friends and colleagues, several people bought autographed copies. And I received some thoughtful comments on the type of aircraft that ferried my dad from Guam to Pearl Harbor, after his miraculous release 24 hours after it was permissible from military service. On seeing the picture that appears in the book, they agreed with Lew Lynch that the B-24 was not a Liberator, as I stated in the book, but a Privateer, the Marine Corps version of this aircraft. My tale of the struggle back on the home front also appeals to families of veterans and those who are serving in iraq and Afghanistan today.

In his report on the meeting in the post newsletter, Post President Glen Cherry, my colleague and friend, wrote: “One of the goals of the SAME St. Louisand Scott Field Posts is to keep things interesting. While we attempt to provide as many opportunities for our members to obtain Professional Development Hours, for example, we occasionally like to stir in a little lighter message. Such was the case at our March 22nd luncheon…that featured long-time SAME member Peter Green’s presentation about his new book. Pete’s talk featured many interesting anecdotes about his father’s (Ben Green) period of service with the Marines in Guam during World War II, as recounted in Pete’s book. Ben wrote more than 400 letters home during his 18 months abroad, and Pete painstakingly gleaned from them an authentic, and charming, account of his dad’s challenges and accomplishments during the war. Ben has a unique place in history as the Guam radio station’s manager who announced the Japanese surrender to the world. Take a break from your busy life for a moment and
visit www.dadswar.net for a peek at this truly interesting bit of history!”

Perhaps most gratifying of all, the publishers received word of our first book notice, by James A. Cox in the Midwest Book Review, which is quoted here as it is currently posted on Amazon.com:

An intimate biographical account of the life of journalist Ben Green and his illusive enlistment… March 7, 2006

“Dad’s War With The United States Marines by Peter H. Green is an intimate biographical account of the life of journalist Ben Green and his illusive enlistment… As a trusting citizen, Green signed himself into the Marine Corps as a combat intelligence officer without understanding the intent of the military, which was aimed at exploiting the aspirations of the 35 year-old man. The reader will follow Peter’s family through their struggle of an unsure outcome of marginal living conditions and of situational manipulations in Dad’s War With The United States Marines. Sure to inspire the reader to thoughtful reflection given current demands on the American military arising from the ‘war on terrorism,’ Dad’s War With The United States Marines is very highly recommended to all general readers and a welcome addition to the growing library of military memoirs and biographies.”

From wondering if I even ought to be writing at all to getting a little bit of attention from people I’ve never met: that seems like a big step for me. It’s also another reminder that if you believe in something strongly you should keep trying: eventually you will get through to people who understand you.

That’s it for now. Keep readin’ and writin’!

Pete