Sailor from Oklahoma: One Man’s Two-Ocean War

Floyd Beaver left Oklahoma to enlist in the U.S. Navy on June 6, 1939, and over the course of World War II served in fifteen ships. He saw combat in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Pacific, including the hotly contested Solomon campaign aboard the diminutive HMNZS Moa, barely escaping with his life when Japanese aircraft sank the ship in April 1943. His memoir describes the war and the months of preparation leading up to it from the perspective of a young seaman in the Regular Navy. The details he provides about how the enlisted men lived and interacted with officers offer a glimpse into a world rarely seen by outsiders�a clash of cultures that, he says, affected the conduct of the war. AUTHOR: Floyd Beaver left Tulsa University to join the U.S. Navy just before the outbreak of World War II and was discharged in September 1945 as a Chief Signalman, having been promoted for meritorious conduct in action. After the war he had a career in advertising in San Francisco. Now retired, he lives in Mill Valley, California, and is the author of Homeward Bounder and White Hats, two books of short stories. 25 b/w photos