books

REVIEW: My Brother’s Letters
Amazon Paperback:  $$11.59, Kindle:  $5.95
One of the interesting things about this Association is the historical data that turns up from unexpected sources.  Take “My Brother’s Letters,” a self-published paperback (and ebook) written by James Watson and chronicling the action of his Marine cinematographer brother during World War II.

Somewhat like Linda Keaton-Lima’s “War Is Not Just For Heroes,” the dispatches recorded by her dad, CC Red Canup, Watson’s brother, Robert described his training and his combat in letters sent to his family and collected by his mother.  Unlike Red, however, Robert was killed while filming combat action on Okinawa.

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Book by Tom Graves

Joe Rosenthal Chapter member, Tom Graves talks about his interviews of Nisei Veterans, their battles against wartime suspicion and racism, and overcoming them with their courage and patriotism.

Tuesday  •  June 11, 2013  •  6:00 pm
Marines’ Memorial Club & Hotel, 609 Sutter Street, San Francisco
Registration at 5:30 pm | Program at 6:00 pm

TWICE HEROES: America’s Nisei Veterans of WWII and Korea, tells the story of true American heroes, up to now, a piece of history known to few of their countrymen.

Through his interviews and professional portraits, author and photographer Tom Graves shares the experiences of Japanese American veterans before, during and after World War II.

At first denigrated and mistrusted, the Nisei veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, earned the praise of a nation, and ultimately, a Congressional Gold Medal, America’s highest civilian honor. The Congressional Gold Medal comes to San Francisco on June 29 for display at the de Young Museum until August 4, 2013.

In the panic following the December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, the Nisei, American citizens, were prohibited from joining the U.S. armed forces, and along with their families, many faced forced incarceration in bleak internment camps.

They took up the fight for their country, for civil liberties, for the freedom of their families and recognition for themselves as full American citizens. Along the way, they became the most decorated military unit in United States history, fought their own civil rights battle, championed Hawaii statehood and acceptance of Asian Americans into our society.

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Remember last years’ speaker, our own CC Rod Deutschmann and his wife, Robin? They have finished a wonderful new eBook about using your digital camera on manual: The IFLC’s Complete Guide to the art of Going Manual. Forty Lessons and more than 60 in-the-field exercises to keep your practice sessions Read more…

P.T. Brent authored a new book, 29: an Anthology of Outrageous Stories. Description on Amazon.com: U.S. Marines by their very culture are strong, bold, disciplined . . . and ultimately victorious. The Irish know how to make something from nothing . . . and still find cheeky humor in a Read more…

Honorary Life Member and 1982 Denig Award winner Marvin J. Wolf has a new book out–and one of his earlier works, considered a classic of its genre, is back in print. The Tattooed Rabbi is a mystery thriller set in Southern California. The protagonist is a rabbi working as a Read more…

If you have not yet read “War Is Not Just For Heroes,” the World War II dispatches and letters of the late CC Red Canup, this is your chance to purchase it at the low post-conference rate of $20, which includes postage. The book, edited by Red’s daughter, Dr. Linda Read more…

World War II Dispatches and Letters of U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondent Claude R. “Red” Canup

Review by Capt Jack T. Paxton, USMC (Ret)
Reprinted courtesy of Leatherneck Magazine

At the outbreak of World War II, Brigadier General Robert L. Denig Sr., then heading the Marine Corps’ Department of Public Relations and tasked with finding experienced reporters, photographers and broadcasters to cover the Pacific campaigns, put out the word to civilian newsmen: Make it through boot camp and we will make you sergeants and send you to the Pacific.

Two years later a 33-year-old sports editor from South Carolina answered the call. His friends in Anderson, S.C., thought Claude “Red” Canup was several bricks shy of a full load. No spring chicken, Red made it through Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., and soon found himself attached to Marine Aircraft Group 45, Fourth Marine Aircraft Wing and on the tiny atoll of Ulithi, soon to be in support of Iwo Jima combat operations.

The first order BGen Denig gave to his new group of correspondents in 1942 was, “[G]ive most of your time to the enlisted man, what he thinks, says and does. If Pvt. Bill Jones of Cumberland Gap wins the boxing title, tell the people of Cumberland Gap about it.”

Canup took this to heart and, by wars’ end, had produced 398 “dispatches” about Marines of his unit for various hometowns across America. Fortunately for us, Red was a pack rat and kept copies of everything he wrote.

Now, 68 years later, his onion-skin dispatches are brought to life in the book “War Is Not Just for Heroes,” edited by Red’s daughter, Linda Canup Keaton-Lima. This work has captured some of the best reporting of flight operations ever to come out of World War II. More interesting is how and why this combat corre­spondent came to produce them.

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Tracy Crow is a member of the Florida Chapter and is an assistant professor at Eckerd College. She has a book that’s been reviewed in the Tampa Bay Tribune called “Eyes Right, Confessions From a Woman Marine”. It’s her second book published.  The first book is penned under the name Carver Greene Read more…

Walt Ford tells us that it is official. Chip Jones’ book “War Shots”  — the biography on Norm Hatch — is the winner of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Colonel Joseph Alexander Award for best biography in 2011.