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The Diary of a Naval Aviator
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Category: April, 1942

April 10, 1942 (Friday)

April 10, 2017 1271941

San Diego Finally disposed of my old uniforms from the Naval Academy – 4 suits of blues and an overcoat,…

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Posted in: April, 1942

April 9, 1942 (Thursday)

April 9, 2017 1271941

San Diego Up early. Beautiful desert morning. Warm sun. Lizards. Birds. Sat by swimming pool and soaked it up. Finally…

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April 8, 1942 (Wednesday)

April 8, 2017 1271941

Sierra Madre Drove out to see Mom – she looks pretty good considering all. She’s in Riverside Community Hospital –…

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April 7, 1942 (Tuesday)

April 7, 2017 1271941

Sierra Madre To SF. Picked up old uniforms and then south to Sierra Madre via the west side of the…

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April 6, 1942 (Monday)

April 6, 2017 1271941

Santa Clara Spent day at Gram’s. (She’s visiting Gretchy.)

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April 5, 1942 (Sunday, Easter)

April 5, 2017 1271941

San Francisco and Merced Went to Easter Mass at Old St. Mary’s with Noje, after which we drove down to…

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April 4, 1942 (Saturday)

April 4, 2017 1271941

San Francisco Had lunch with Liz McDonald at the El Prado. Splashed through drizzly streets to Federal Bldg. to get…

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April 3, 1942 (Friday)

April 3, 2017 1271941

San Francisco No orders yet. Lunch with Frank Taylor and his son Jim. He invited me to his house for…

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April 2, 1942 (Thursday)

April 2, 2017 1271941

San Francisco Waiting for orders from BuNav. Had lunch with Serge and Laddie Bryner at the Flytrap – they truly…

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April 1, 1942 (Wednesday)

April 1, 2017 1271941

Santa Clara Spent the day in Santa Clara at Grams. She made me some hamburgers, after which I retired to…

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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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