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The Diary of a Naval Aviator
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Category: December, 1941

Dec. 21, 1941 (Sunday)

December 21, 2016 1271941

S.S. President Polk Still south. Overcast. Have started growing a mustache and goatee, à la Italo Balbo. Finished “De Maupin.”…

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Posted in: December, 1941

Dec. 20, 1941 (Saturday)

December 20, 2016 1271941

S.S. President Polk Ship still headed due south. Seas lighter – no rolling. Weather clear. Making about 18 kn. About…

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Dec. 19, 1941 (Friday)

December 19, 2016 1271941

S.S. President Polk Ship headed out to sea at 3 a.m. and immediately on passing through the gate it started…

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Dec. 18, 1941 (Thursday)

December 18, 2016 1271941

S.S. President Polk Woke at Gram’s after excellent sleep. Got shoes, also Xmas cards. Found two more suits of whites…

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Dec. 17, 1941 (Wednesday)

December 17, 2016 1271941

Santa Clara Not much sleep. Arrived in S.F. about 09:30 a.m. and reported to District Headquarters. Learned that I was…

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Dec. 16, 1941 (Tuesday)

December 16, 2016 1271941

Fresno Am writing this on Thursday — God, what a three days! On Tuesday morning I got permission from Major…

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Dec. 15, 1941 (Monday)

December 15, 2016 1271941

Fresno Was called at 4 AM this morning for a mission. Took-off, after much unnecessary delay, at 0630 in a…

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Dec. 14, 1941 (Sunday)

December 14, 2016 1271941

Fresno After getting up blearily in the wee hours, eating breakfast, and stumbling down to the operations shack at the…

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Dec. 13, 1941 (Saturday)

December 13, 2016 1271941

Fresno Reported at 0800 to Cmdr. Armstrong in SF. Sat on ass for 4 hours, and was finally sent up…

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Dec. 12, 1941 (Friday)

December 12, 2016 1271941

Santa Clara Sat around Gram’s all day and played records — was like a shot in the arm. Got a…

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A secret for 75 years

Kailua resident James Claire Nolan kept a secret most of his life. A Navy pilot during World War II, he kept a detailed diary and drew pictures throughout the conflict, a practice frowned upon by security-minded authorities. When he died in the early 1990s, he entrusted the pages to his friend and military historian Burl Burlingame of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Burlingame is now Historian at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum.

Trained as a navy bomber pilot, Nolan was rushed to the Dutch East Indies as war broke out and returned to Pearl Harbor, where he was pressed into service flying PBY “Catalina” flying boats on patrol.

Later, Nolan served with distinction at the battle of Midway, on Guadalcanal and became the personal pilot for Vice Adm. Aubrey Fitch. Nolan said his proudest moment came when in the summer of ’43 he discovered the slowly sinking bow of USS Helena, sheared off by a Japanese torpedo several days before and covered with desperate survivors. He stuck with the ship until help arrived.

After the war, Nolan joined the US Air Force and continued to fly. In civilian life, he was a historian at Hickam Air Force Base.

We are publishing these diary entries exactly 75 years to the day after these pages were written. Except for very minor spelling and grammatical updates, they are as written — including observations that may seem not “politically correct” these days. It is a look into the mindset of a young man fighting a war across a vast ocean.

This site will remain active for five years. It is sponsored by historical-interpretation company Pacific Monograph.

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