Vietnam vet recounts war in Pacific

Vietnam War veteran Bruce M. Petty is currently on island to promote his third book featuring fellow war veterans’ accounts of World War II in the Pacific.

At War in the Pacific: Personal Accounts of World War II Navy and Marine Corps Officers highlights at least 20 stories of triumph and painful recollection of the war.

In a news briefing yesterday morning at the American Memorial Park Visitor Center, the 60-year-old Petty said the book would be instrumental in telling readers significant events during the war, especially from the perspective of Navy and Marine Corps officers.

Petty said there are stories about the war that have not been told in so many publications, and his book hopefully would inspire readers and make them appreciate more what the veterans did during the war.

The author, who also wrote Saipan: Oral Histories of the Pacific and Voices of the Pacific War: Bluejackets Remember, said he has no particular favorite story in his new book. He believes that all stories of war veterans are of equal significance.

For At War in the Pacific, Petty interviewed hundreds of World War II veterans and their families. He was also able to fall back on references to find former naval officers to interview for the book.

The book contains an introduction where Petty explained that through the power of the Internet, veterans were able to find him for the project.

“In this introduction and the abbreviated timeline, I have tried to give an overview of WWII in the Pacific to those who might be first-time readers of the subject. But the real story of this war—any war, as far as I’m concerned—is that of the men and women, once young, who served in the war, and I shall leave its telling to them,” said Petty.

The book is now available at the AMP Visitor Center. AMP site manager and bookstore manager Jessica Jordan said all titles of Petty’s book are sold at the Visitor Center.

Jordan is inviting the public this afternoon for a lecture to be conducted by the author at 5pm inside the AMP Visitor Center auditorium. She said Petty’s lecture, called “Stories of Humanity in War,” would be a 50-minute PowerPoint lecture with a question-and-answer session afterwards.

Jordan said the lecture would be followed by a book signing at the Visitor Center lobby.