Elizabeth R. P. Shaw

A good book to read but difficult for me to sympathize strongly with the author. Elizabeth, an Army brat( her father a West Pointer, was a colonel but now works on Wall St), marries a Naval Academy grad and uses his and her letters to document becoming engaged and married into the military just prior to and during WW2. While many others were not able to travel or find housing, she uses her special connections to travel overseas and around the country when is was virtually impossible for anyone else. If it really got sticky, dad called Pa Watson, a general and FDR's military aide for transportation and her other needs. She characterizes the cavalier but genteel way that permeated both academies in dealing with the many reserve officers and temporary military that came into service for the wartime only, with a blatant WE and them attitude. Virtually all of the early bad decisions in WW2 that cost the lives of many were made by Academy grads still seeking promotion and their place in the military chain of command. Her subsequent, no holds barred, pursuit of her husband's friend, himself, a widower, aptly portrays her less than sterling attitude. A good picture of life in the military during WW2 but I did not really like the frame in which it was enclosed.… (plus d'informations)