One resident of Mobile, John Gray, worked in the
shipyards during the war. Eventually joining the
Marines in 1943, Gray boasts of being in one of only
two black units trained for combat, though their aspirations to do so were stymied by white commanders.
Ray Pittman, a fellow Mobile Marine, went from his
simple life as a carpenter to serve in such famous battles as Saipain and Iwo Jima.
Through interviews with subjects like Pittman,
Burns does a magnificent job of not just tracing the
principal characters’ lives, but also giving a slice of life
at home through interviews with family members.
The life of Sacramento resident Susumu Satow
shows a far different side of the effects of war at home.
The prejudices Satow experienced, as he was forced to
abandon his home and enter an internment camp, mirrors those of Pittman and Gray. The similarities are further underscored when Satow joins the Army to get
out of the camp and fights for more than a year
throughout Western Europe, serving a country that did
not serve him well at home.
In Waterbury, a town so small that the draft officer
had to frequently cross the street to avoid getting
harassed by mothers whose sons had been drafted,
Tom and Olga Ciarlo stayed in town to see their distraught mother through the war. But their neighbor,
Raymond Leopold was no sooner married than he left
“to be trained to kill.” Though, as his company commander discovered, his true talents were for saving
lives. As such, Leopold was assigned as a first aid officer until the war ended.
There are only a handful of residents interviewed
from the small town of Luverne, but their stories epitomize Burns’ core message: “In extraordinary times,
there are no ordinary lives.”
Quentin Aanenson, for example, describes the most
fun to be had in town prior to the war as “getting
drunk, driving a car real fast and unsuccessfully trying
to get somewhere with a girl.” But when the war began,
he recounts, the world was wide open for him to experience. He joined the Army Air Corps and became a
combat pilot, flying his first mission on D-Day.
“The War” also includes dramatic and emotionally
gripping readings by actors Tom Hanks, Samuel L.
Jackson and others of autobiographical accounts of
some Americans lost during or since the war.
Japanese-American Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii,
also chimes in, commenting on how his life was affected by the war as he went from an “enemy combatant”
to a lucky patriot. He enlisted in the Army after it ended
its ban on Japanese-Americans in 1943, and lost an arm
in combat in Europe. He later was awarded the Medal
of Honor and is now the third most senior U.S. senator.
“The War” is a compelling series for any World War
II buff. The series, through its intimacy, is an inclusive
portrait of a great generation. ■
“The War” begins Sept. 23 on PBS.
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MARITIMERECONNAISSANCE
& SURVEILLANCE 2007
8th-10th October 2007, Le Meridien Park Atlantic, Lisbon, Portugal
20 INTERNATIONAL EXPERT SPEAKERS WILL GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO:
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High-level briefings from our
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Rear Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone,
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Italian Navy
Rear Admiral (Junior Grade) Dennis
Forrest, Director Naval Policy and
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Colonel Germano Marta, Programme
Manager, P- 3 Modernisation Office,
Portuguese Air Force
Colonel Alan D. Blair, Commander,
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Canadian Forces
Steven T. Liebler, Principal Deputy,
Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance
Aircraft Programme Office US Navy/PEO
(A), PMA-290, US Navy
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email Claudine.Patterson@iqpc.co.uk, or call Claudine directly on + 44 (0) 207 368 9487
POST-CONFERENCE SITE VISIT:
Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal, S.A (OGMA)
10th October 2007
Take advantage of the exclusive opportunity to tour the
aircraft facilities in Alverca, offering support and
maintenance to a range of maritime aircraft
