Monday, May 25, 2009

Danger's Hour - The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her

I spent my Memorial Day afternoon enjoying a Kennedy Library Forum

"A Conversation with Max Kennedy"

In honor of Memorial Day, Max Kennedy, son of Ethel and the late Robert F. Kennedy, discusses his new book, Danger’s Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her, with Brown University historian Ted Widmer. USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) was an Essex class aircraft carrier built at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts & commissioned in May 1943. I can't wait to dive in.

I bought two copies and had them autographed....I can't say anything more here, lol.

What more could Princess Crabby ask for on her Memorial Day? Sailors.....history.....a ship with ties to Charlestown. I enjoyed myself very much. There were Sailors, veterans, and a few who had actually served aboard USS Bunker Hill.

When the lecture was over and I had my books, I wandered out into the exhibit halls. Mounted on the wall near JFK's uniform was the AAR of the PT109 sinking. Of course I know this story so well because of my childhood in Charlestown. And I've been to the library before. But now with all my non-fiction reading and all my Sailors (in real life and online), I understood so much more. LOL It was like a new experience.

One thing that struck me as funny was how disoriented I was that Max Kennedy doesn't have a Boston accent. I know that he wasn't born or raised here. There is no reason for me to expect him to sound like me.....except for the fact that his last name is Kennedy.

The book has it's own website "Danger's Hour". The pics are from HyperWar.

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