I have listened to that one three or four times...:)
Near the end of the book, he talked about a poem written by Captain Gordon Beecher, USN which I looked up and love:
By Nimitz-and Halsey-and Me
***************************
Patty McCoy-an American boy-
Left his home in the Lone Star State
He set out to sea in a shiny DD
And he wound up in Task Force Three Eight
He cruised for a while with a satisfied smile,
Then he took his pencil in hand,
And here’s what he wrote in a well-censored note
To the folks back in State-side land:
Me-and Halsey and Nimitz
Have sure got the Japs on the run
We’re drivin’ em wacky in old Nagasaki,
We’re settin’ the damn Rising Sun.
Kyushu and Kobe and Kure
Are wonderful ruins to see.
We’ve got em like gophers a-seekin a hole.
The way that they burrow is good for the soul
And everything out here is under control
By Nimitz-and Halsey-and me.
Me-and Halsey-and Nimitz
Are havin’ a wonderful time
What we ain’t uprootin’
By bombing and shootin’
Would fit on the face of a dime.
They say they’re a face-savin’ nation,
And that may be as true as can be,
They’re taking a pushin’ all over the place.
We give ‘em the Arsenic minus Old Lace.
They’re gettin’ a kicking but not in the face
From Nimitz and Halsey-and me.
Me-and Halsey and Nimitz
Are anchored in Tokyo Bay.
The place is just drippin’ American shippin’
They stretch for a helluva way.
We hear that the fighting is finished,
And that is the way it should be.
Remember Pearl Harbor-they started it then.
We’re warnin’ ‘em never to start it again.
For we have a country with millions of men
Like Nimitz-and Halsey-and me.
Yes, that’s a great poem.
Here’s a link to a live stream from San Diego:.
Excellent!