Published: 23 August 2007
Air & Space Power
Journal - Fall 2007
From POW to Blue Angel: The Story of Commander Dusty Rhodes by Jim Armstrong. University of Oklahoma Press (http://www.oupress.com), 2800 Venture Drive, Norman, Oklahoma 73069-8216, 2006, 317 pages, $29.95 (hardcover).
Jim Armstrong’s From POW to Blue Angel is a page-turner that reinforces the cliché “truth is often more compelling than fiction.” Dusty Rhodes could have been the Forrest Gump of Navy air in his generation, for he seemed present at every important event in naval aviation and seemed to have done everything of historical interest. Certainly, there were plenty of exceptional occurrences in his life, but none of them really qualify as noteworthy. Rather, we are struck by the entire span of his military life: what he saw, what he did, whom he served with, and how he handled it all with great courage, grace, persistence, and good humor.
An Eagle Scout and all-American boy, Rhodes joined the young American Navy aviators who rushed to the Pacific to join the fight against the most well-trained and advanced navy in the history of the world—one whose air arm had just sunk most of the US Pacific Battle Fleet at Pearl Harbor. His unforgettable baptism of fire occurred during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942. This classic Pacific sea battle was only the second major combat engagement in the history of navy warfare in which opposing surface forces never saw one another—aircraft on both sides accounted for all of the strike power. Early in his fleet-aviation experience, Rhodes bonded with the Who’s Who of wartime naval aviation: aces Swede Vegtasa, Butch Voris, and Butch O’Hare; great aviation leaders Jimmy Thatch and Tommy Flatly; and more—all icons of aviation and the war in the Pacific. He also recounts meeting the brilliant Japanese fleet admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Through his unblinking personal insight, we come to know these interesting and ultimately famous people.
Are there lessons here for today’s military members? Absolutely. Armstrong has written a wonderful human-interest story about real people from the “Greatest Generation”—a special man, his peers, and family at a special time and place in our nation’s history. It is also an eminently military story of backbone, persistence, and optimism in the face of devastating enemy attacks, brutal adversity in captivity, personal setbacks in a war-strained marriage, professional challenge in a new era of aviation, and resurrection among his peers through hard work and dedication.
The book’s human aspect sets it apart. The themes are timeless, and the details are riveting. A talented young man sets off to war and glory but encounters a ruthless reality check in his first hectic combat experience. Surviving that encounter, he maintains his dignity during a dehumanizing tenure as a prisoner of war in the enemy camp, shares eyewitness accounts of the Allies’ Tokyo bombing campaign, and experiences the touching intimacies of men thrown together in a humiliating internment. Ultimately, he perseveres and after struggling with postwar realities, both professional and personal, he triumphs.
From POW to Blue Angel relates the experiences of a participant in one of our nation’s most interesting and challenging periods—and does so in a very personal way. Much more than the story of one man’s triumphs in aviation, it is a fascinating account of one of the key turning points in the history of modern warfare. Read this book. You will enjoy it.
CAPT D. Scott Thompson, USN, Retired
Middletown, Rhode Island
Disclaimer
Book Reviews | Home Page |Feedback? Email the Editor