All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor Hardcover – November 22, 2016

“An unforgettable story of unfathomable courage.” (Reader’s Digest)

“A story of awe-inspiring courage and steely determination. … Stratton’s book should be in every school library.” (The Missourian)

“Stratton tells his epic story in the memoir All the Gallant Men. … Stratton would have been among the 1,177 USS Arizona shipmates — out of 1,511 aboard — who perished if not for a nail-biting escape.” (New York Post)

“An intimate account. … A powerful voice.” (Library Journal)

“[An] epic tale.” (Daily Mail (UK))

“Ninety-four-year-old veteran Donald Stratton delivers an extraordinary firsthand account in All the Gallant Men.” (Bookreporter.com)

“An amazing story, and we’re lucky that Don Stratton decided to share it. (Military.com)

“Add[s] to the historical knowledge of Pearl Harbor. … Deeply personal. … Stratton’s book reminds us of a better America, an America that was strong in character, not just military power. … As Stratton reminds us, true greatness comes from within.” (Cal Thomas, nationally syndicated columnist)

THE MOST GRIPPING, INTIMATE, AND INSPIRING ACCOUNT OF PEARL HARBOR. THE FIRST MEMOIR EVER PUBLISHED BY A USS ARIZONA SURVIVOR.

At 8:06 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno. A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely fifteen minutes into Japan’s surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. Near death and burned across two thirds of his body, Don, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan who had been steeled by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel. Forty-five feet below, the harbor’s flaming, oil-slick water boiled with enemy bullets; all around him the world tore itself apart.

In this extraordinary, never-before-told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack—the only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizona—ninety-four-year-old Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941, his harrowing recovery, and his inspiring determination to return to the fight.

Don and four other sailors made it safely across the same line that morning, a small miracle on a day that claimed the lives of 1,177 of their Arizona shipmates—approximately half the American fatalities at Pearl Harbor. Sent to military hospitals for a year, Don refused doctors’ advice to amputate his limbs and battled to relearn how to walk. The U.S. Navy gave him a medical discharge, believing he would never again be fit for service, but Don had unfinished business. In June 1944, he sailed back into the teeth of the Pacific War on a destroyer, destined for combat in the crucial battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, thus earning the distinction of having been present for the opening shots and the final major battle of America’s Second World War.