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The Diary of a Naval Aviator
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Category: April, 1942

April 30, 1942 (Thursday)

April 30, 2017 1271941

Pearl Harbor Got squared away. My first hop comes up tomorrow. Some of the pilots in the squadron have been…

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Posted in: April, 1942

April 29, 1942 (Wednesday)

April 29, 2017 1271941

Pearl Harbor Only 50 yards in front of out BOQ lies the flame-twisted hulk of the USS Arizona. Another 50…

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April 28, 1942 (Tuesday)

April 28, 2017 1271941

Pearl Harbor Raised Oahu about 8 a.m. and were disembarked in Pearl Harbor about 1 p.m. Reported to my new…

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April 27, 1942 (Monday)

April 27, 2017 1271941

USS Wharton, Pacific Ocean Finished a truly fine historical novel, “Final Hosting” by Patrick Welch. A story of Ireland, after…

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April 26, 1942 (Sunday)

April 26, 2017 1271941

Pacific Ocean Attended my first shipboard mass within memory this morning. Held outdoors on the after end of the promenade…

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April 25, 1942 (Saturday)

April 25, 2017 1271941

Pacific Ocean Miscellaneous — Finished J. Frank Dobie’s “Apache Gold and Yacqui Silver” — good collection of scuttlebutt from the…

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April 24, 1942 (Friday)

April 24, 2017 1271941

Pacific Ocean Must be hitting the halfway mark today. Am mighty tired of traveling around on these damned transports. At…

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April 23, 1942 (Thursday)

April 23, 2017 1271941

Pacific Ocean A PBY-5 passed close over us this morning. Sinking into the now familiar vicious cycle of eat and…

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April 22, 1942 (Wednesday)

April 22, 2017 1271941

Pacific Ocean Blimp left with nightfall last night. This ship is clean and well run.

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April 21, 1942 (Tuesday)

April 21, 2017 1271941

Pacific Ocean Pulled out about ten this morning. The bay was filled with grey ships, and the old Matson docks…

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Posted in: April, 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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