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RENDEZVOUS IN THE CORAL SEA
A Memoir of World War II
Rendezvous In the Coral Sea is the story of a young artist who comes of age in the Navy in World War II. From active service in the Mediterranean to the South Pacific, the book is autobiographical and historically convincing. It will be enjoyed by a wide audience of general readers as well as naval history buffs for its bemused and ironic point of view in the midst of both tedium and tragedy. Each of the chapters can be read as an individual piece, even though the book follows a chronological outline.
It begins with the inauspicious entry into the U.S. Navy of the narrator, Ensign Chitwood. It tells the story of his passage, from his life as an art student, the only son of a Virginia lawyer who scorned the professional military, into a naval veteran. During five eventful years he experienced the torpedoing of the USS Wasp (CV-7), the ship he loved, severe burns when the carrier exploded, a swim in oil-covered seas, and recovery in a jungle hospital.
Upon recovery from his wounds, the author served on a second carrier, the USS Yorktown (CV-10), glamorously dubbed "The Fighting Lady."
Along the way Ensign Chitwood is assimilated into naval life, the inner workings of warships, military medical personnel and assorted bureaucratic convolutions, women and girls, war and peace, life and death.
The narrator is an active participant in the tragedy and drama inherent in war, but he is also the observer who leads the reader along his own trail of memory. He tells how it was to be there in a vivid style that makes for easy reading.
The characters who shared his experience in the Navy are given life in the telling. The confusion, obsolescence of equipment and surprise that marked the United States' entry into the war enhance the miracle that was victory. All are described in sharp detail. Many of the generation that came after that event in the world's history have little knowledge of it. Rendezvous in the Coral Sea will contribute to understanding of the period, and of the people who did their part in the vast enterprise of fighting and winning World War II.
Unlike recent books on the ghastly adventure that was Vietnam, it is told without anger or bitterness. It is a story of personal growth, developing understanding, tolerance and new knowledge in the midst of what seemed, at the time, to be the end of the world as we knew it.
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Reviews:
"During my years at Harcourt, Brace and then more years as the editor of Meredith's Book-of-the-Month Club I read a goodly number of books. Very few evoked the enthusiasm Rendezvous in the Coral Sea did.
"After just it few chapters, I began saying to myself: 'It can't he as good as it seems!' But I kept turning the pages.
"It is very well written. Never any geewhiz overkill, always clear, even when
describing complex events. And the people come to life in a way not many characters in
bestselling novels do."
-- Hester Phreaner, former editor of Book-of-the-Month Club.
"This is a wonderful book. We see a great deal of the history of W.W. II from one
young man's point of view. The story is moving and filled with terrifying action and the
tragic losses inevitable in war. Yet it is also full of graceful good humor. I can't
imagine a reader who won't enjoy it."
-- Anne Rockwell, author of more than one hundred books.
"Randolph Chitwood's new book, Rendezvous in the Coral Sea, published by Red Top Press of Old Greenwich ($15), is a great memoir of his days in the U.S. Navy during World War II from 1940 to 1945.
"His stories. which include the sinking, of the USS Wasp in the Pacific, are not
only interesting but spiced with his wry sense of humor, making for excellent reading.
This is a real page-turner and it would make a marvelous gift for anyone who lived through
those years. Thanks to a suggestion by the author's wife. Betty Chitwood, the cover of
this paperback book is colored coral as befits the title. And it is most attractive."
-- Greenwich (CT) Time
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