Surviving the sinking of his ship, the U.S.S. Houston, on March 1, 1942, and making a 10-½ hour swim to the beach on Java, is only one of Jack’s exciting adventures. As a small boy on cattle ranches in Southern California, he attended one-room schools. After graduating from Santa Barbara High School, he joined the U.S. Navy. He thoroughly enjoyed the travels until his ship was sunk and he became a Prisoner of War of the barbaric and cruel Japanese. With only the strong will to life, a good sense of humor, and the Grace of God did he survive 3 ½ years of Hell Holes. After the end of World War II, he remained in the U.S. Navy, and with diligent study he advanced up through the ranks to become a Commander! He was assigned as Chief Engineer on his last two ships that were Aircraft Carriers. Before and after the war, he had many compelling romances, lots of rollicking fun, and real exciting adventures enough to last two life times.

Few Americans, black or white, recognize the degree to which early African American history is a maritime history. W. Jeffrey Bolster shatters the myth that black seafaring in the age of sail was limited to the Middle Passage. Seafaring was one of the most significant occupations among both enslaved and free black men between 1740 and 1865. Tens of thousands of black seamen sailed on lofty clippers and modest coasters. They sailed in whalers, warships, and privateers. Some were slaves, forced to work at sea, but by 1800 most were free men, seeking liberty and economic opportunity aboard ship.Bolster brings an intimate understanding of the sea to this extraordinary chapter in the formation of black America. Because of their unusual mobility, sailors were the eyes and ears to worlds beyond the limited horizon of black communities ashore. Sometimes helping to smuggle slaves to freedom, they were more often a unique conduit for news and information of concern to blacks.But for all its opportunities, life at sea was difficult. Blacks actively contributed to the Atlantic maritime culture shared by all seamen, but were often outsiders within it. Capturing that tension, Black Jacks examines not only how common experiences drew black and white sailors together--even as deeply internalized prejudices drove them apart--but also how the meaning of race aboard ship changed with time. Bolster traces the story to the end of the Civil War, when emancipated blacks began to be systematically excluded from maritime work. Rescuing African American seamen from obscurity, this stirring account reveals the critical role sailors played in helping forge new identities for black people in America.An epic tale of the rise and fall of black seafaring, Black Jacks is African Americans' freedom story presented from a fresh perspective.

Micah Hartman and Damon Hall first meet in the frontier river town of Reed’s Landing, Wisconsin in the 1850’s. Micah, the son of one of the town’s leading lumbermen, embodies the West but seeks more from his life than the perpetual cycle of lumbering. Damon, educated at Harvard’s Divinity School, comes to “the Landing” an idealistic young cleric seeking to do God’s will. Despite what they may have planned for their lives, the Civil War gives them different paths to tread. The old friends are united as members of the Seventh Wisconsin—soon to become part of the famous “Iron Brigade”. Micah, an infantryman, and Damon, the Seventh’s chaplain, are forever changed inside the crucible of combat where they are forced to face war’s death, pain, and suffering. After the war, life continues. The men find wives and dream of children. Young men become older men; older men discover regret. It is only after forty years at each other’s side that the truth comes out. An aged ledger appears that casts a shadow of doubt on the integrity of one of these men, and that shadow could forever darken a lifelong friendship.