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The Diary of a Naval Aviator
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Author: 1271941

January 9, 1943 (Saturday)

January 9, 2018 1271941

Barbers Point NAS The dope is out that we are positively leaving for the New Hebrides and the Solomons beginning…

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Posted in: January, 1943

January 8, 1943 (Friday)

January 8, 2018 1271941

Barbers Point NAS A lumpy-looking assortment of flyers dragged themselves from under the blankets this morning. The mosquitoes had won,…

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Posted in: January, 1943

January 7, 1943 (Thursday)

January 7, 2018 1271941

Barking Sands Field Six of us flew up to Barking Sands Field (Army) at Kauai this morning. Pushed the planes…

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Posted in: January, 1943

January 6, 1943 (Wednesday)

January 6, 2018 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Back to the squadron early this morning. Flew 6-plane formation in the afternoon with the Skipper leading.…

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Posted in: January, 1943

January 5, 1943 (Tuesday)

January 5, 2018 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Today is the fifth day of steady rain. Heavy rain squalls begin sweeping over the island in…

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Posted in: January, 1943

January 31, 1943 (Sunday)

1271941

“Buttons,” Espiritu Santo Rest day. Slept most of the morning. Went for a ride in the Jeep in the afternoon.…

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Posted in: January, 1943

January 4, 1943 (Monday)

January 4, 2018 1271941

Barbers Point NAS I’m getting pretty disgusted with this goddamned naval aviation. If it were possible, I’d transferred to the…

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Posted in: January, 1943

January 3, 1943 (Sunday)

January 3, 2018 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Went to church this morning for the first time since last April. I feel badly about not…

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Posted in: January, 1943

January 2, 1943 (Saturday)

January 2, 2018 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Ran into Beeza this morning at the hotel. She just returned from Maui and said she’d made…

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Posted in: January, 1943

December 31, 1942 (Thursday) and Friday, January 1, 1943 (Friday)

December 31, 2017 1271941

Kailua The cure worked, thank God, so that I felt in shape for a good New Year’s, this morning. Started…

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Posted in: December, 1942, January, 1943

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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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