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The Diary of a Naval Aviator
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Category: November, 1942

November 10, 1942 (Tuesday)

November 10, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Into Pearl Harbor this morning with “Tad” Fairbanks. Had cavity in front tooth fixed over on Ford…

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Posted in: November, 1942

November 9, 1942 (Monday)

November 9, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Hitchhiked out to the squadron very late, due to an early morning visit to Barbara Thompson. Got…

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November 8, 1942 (Sunday)

November 8, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Charley Dwight, who is been assigned to the station ship Sacramento (Palmyra Is.) dropped around to the…

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November 7, 1942 (Saturday)

November 7, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Went over to Pearl Harbor Sub Base this morning along with Adams and Fisler. Fuzzy, who already…

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November 6, 1942 (Friday)

November 6, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS “Jeeter” Hare informed me that “Fuzzy” Fisler, J.O. Adams, and myself were ordered to appear at the…

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November 5, 1942 (Thursday)

November 5, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Got the bad news today that the boys down in the Solomons have been transferred to another…

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November 4, 1942 (Wednesday)

November 4, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS What a life! We’re all getting calluses on our asses from sitting around doing nothing. I suppose…

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November 3, 1942 (Tuesday)

November 3, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Back to work this morning. Our exec, Schoenweiss, is slowly and surely ruining the morale in this…

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November 2, 1942 (Monday)

November 2, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Rained heavily all day! The first of such weather I’ve ever seen out here. At the Halekulani…

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November 1, 1942 (Sunday)

November 1, 2017 1271941

Barbers Point NAS Into town on my day-off this afternoon. Water off Waikiki was foul and full of oil due…

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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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