PT Boat 81: Still On WWII Nightmare Patrol
PT Boat 81 describes the World War II Navy Veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Milt Rackham, chronicles the years he spent peering down the sights of a PT boat's big guns during World War II. These stories, along with others of ground action he experienced, offer a unique glimpse into a hell that those who have never known combat can scarcely imagine; moments when life and death collide, separated only by capricious fate, the trajectory of a bullet, a shard of shrapnel.
These are not easy stories to tell. It's only now, more than three-quarters of a century later, that Rackham can bring himself to talk about them at all.
While working on the project, his co-author Myrl Thompson discovered that Rackham had applied for VA benefits several times beginning in 1972, and been repeatedly denied due to a "lack of information". He had stopped trying when he discovered that his military records were lost in a fire at the National Personnel Record Center in St. Louis MO in 1973.
As a result of writing this book, Milt found the courage to make one last request and finally ended up receiving a partial monthly benefit at the age of 86.
Rackham's riveting book is a rare, open, sometimes disturbing chronicle of terror and personal triumph. It provides us with poignant insight into the ongoing impact of war on our veterans and their families.
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