Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's World War II Odyssey

If you're the type of person who's idea of studying history is to read the narrative of someone who was there, this is a book for you. Other reviewers have gone into detail on the substance of the book, so I won't bother. And if this type of book is what you enjoy, I would also recommend, EB Sledge "The Old Breed" and William O Taylor "With Custer at the Little Big Horn." Sledge was a Marine who fought at Pelileu and Okinawa, and Taylor was a Pvt. in Custer's 7th Calvary, 70 years prior in 1876. All three of these men had what I call a "front row seat" to major events in American history, and I find these highly acclaimed narratives an excellent way to explore history.

I regard Al Kernan's book as one of the best, if not the best, memoir of World War II, as good as E.B. Sledge's book WITH THE OLD BREED, which many critics have regarded as the best. I am also a WW II navy veteran and after reading Kernan's book I told my wife that if she wanted to know what it was like to be in the navy, this is what she should read. My wife doesn't read this kind of book but she found the writing so splendid and the story so interesting she thanked me for asking her to read it. One of the most amazing things to me is the detail of Kernan's memory; for example, his description of MogMog island which brought back sudden memories to me since I was often assigned, as a young Ensign, to accompanying enlisted men's parties to the island for recreation. Read it. You won't be disappointed.

This is a wonderful memoir especially for those of us who were too young to serve but old enough to be following what was going on in the So. Pacific during WW II. My children are reading it now with a greater appreciation of what was a difficult and remarkable time for the US.

I've read a thousand books about WWII, many of them about the Pacific theater. But this book is just amazing -- the story of the great events (Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway)told from the point of view of an enlisted man who lived the life of an ordinary sailor while the admirals were plotting grand strategy. It's impossible to get across how poignant and exciting this book is: you feel as though you were 18 years old, growing up in the waning years of the Depression, and then wandered into the Navy just before all hell broke loose at Pearl and America was plunged into the greatest chapter in her history. Kernan captures the gritty details of daily life in the Navy -- the slow, mind-numbing tedium of chipping rust off the anchor chain of a aircraft carrier, each link 3 feet long, the gunner's mate who stays drunk on the alcohol used to clean bombsites, the insanity of the greasy, heaving deck of a carrier as planes return from their missions, with damaged planes instantly and uncermoniously dumped over the side to make room for the next to land. The account of Midway -- the dive bomber pilots nursing their planes home, low on gas, then landing with difficulty, then getting out of the cockpit and jumping up and down on the deck and shouting and laughing, wild with excitement because they had just singlehandedly destroyed the Japanese navy in an action lasting only a few minutes -- is something that will stay in my mind forever. Kernan is a brilliant writer. There's nothing "literary" about Crossing the Line: anyone can read it and will just be swept along by the story, the way I was.

I read at least 10 books a year on WW 2. This one is outstanding. If you only read one book on the aviation war in the pacific, this is it. It reads easy and is difficult to put down. An unforgetable story of one man and his journey through the war.