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The Diary of a Naval Aviator
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Category: October, 1942

October 21, 1942 (Wednesday)

October 21, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Saw Ty Power and Joan Fontaine in “This Above All” — very good. Shopped around town and…

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Posted in: October, 1942

October 20, 1942 (Tuesday)

October 20, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Morning hop. Around the island. Tested Honeywell automatic flight gear — superb. Makes flying a dream. Complaints…

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October 19, 1942 (Monday)

October 19, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Hop canceled. The South wind (Kona) makes the approach over Ewa very difficult and dangerous due to…

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Posted in: October, 1942

October 18, 1942 (Saturday)

October 18, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Hop canceled. (Kona wind).

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Posted in: October, 1942

October 17, 1942 (Saturday)

October 17, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Hop canceled. (Kona wind).

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Posted in: October, 1942

October 16, 1942 (Friday)

October 16, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS The boys down in the Solomon Islands are catching hell. Heard over the radio last night that…

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October 15, 1942 (Thursday)

October 15, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Superb breakfast at the hotel. Say goodbye to Phil Dostal, who is going to the Southwest Pacific.…

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October 14, 1942 (Wednesday)

October 14, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Out in #12 again today, after which I departed for liberty in town. Liberties are now running…

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October 13, 1942 (Tuesday)

October 13, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Soloed the “PB4Y-1” (B-24) for three hours this morning. Savio is my second pilot and Adams is…

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Posted in: October, 1942

October 12, 1942 (Monday)

October 12, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Checked out his first pilot in the B-24 this morning with Bacon. My first two passes at…

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Posted in: October, 1942

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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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