The story
My uncle Eugene McClarty, now 89, lives in Adelaide, Australia, and is a Pearl Harbor survivor. Born on a small cotton farm in Missouri, he joined the US Navy in 1940 at the age of 22. He had never seen the ocean or been on a ship. Gene was assigned to destroyer USS Downes and traveled to Sydney in March 1941 on a good-will cruise. There he met a girl named Barbara, also known as ‘Bobby’. When he left, they promised to write to each other. 

On 7 December 1941 Downes was in dry dock with USS Pennsylvania. When the Japanese attacked Downes was badly damaged. Gene was the second last man off the ship. He was transferred to USS Bagley and served on that ship for the rest of the war. He spent most of 1942-1943 serving with Australian ships and seeing action in the Battle of Savo Island, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and more. The ship visited Sydney several times for liberty. During that time he met up with Bobby again. She got a big shock when she saw him because she thought he was killed at Pearl. They got engaged in May 1943. 

In 1944 he was involved in operations at Saipan and Tinian, the Marianas 'turkey shoot', attacks on the Nansei Shoto Islands and Leyte Gulf landings. In 1945 he took part in operations at Luzon, Lingayen Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In fact, he was at just about every major battle in the Pacific War except the Coral Sea and Midway. In 1946 he married Bobby in Maryland, USA and in 1964 they came to live in Australia. Gene and Bobby celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2006. Gene will celebrate his 90th birthday in 2007. What a life!

The book
This is such a great story that I asked Gene if he had ever written anything about it. Turns out he had a rough manuscript of 96 pages which I took and, over the next two years, turned into a 176 page book with 26 black and white photos and 5 maps. I had it printed in easy to read Times New Roman size 12 font. The book is a handy to hold size of 9"x 6". Its even got an ISBN number: 0 9580418 0 6. The picture at right is the front cover of the book. The photo is Gene in Brisbane, 1941. We had 500 copies printed and have some to sell. If you like personal war memoirs you will love this. See what the Australian Probus News says about  it. 

To Order: Search eBay on title: "War Memoir: Pearl Harbor (Harbour) to Tokyo and Beyond" or, if not listed there, email me at [email protected].with subject heading "Pearl Harbor to Tokyo". 

The Team

Publisher: Catherine Wright	Author: Eugene McClarty	Book launch: July 2003

USS Bagley Torpedo Crew, 1945
Back row: Stanley Simko (TM3/c), Virgil Gust (TM2/c), Joseph Williams (TM2/c), Thomas Davies (TM3/c). Middle Row: Donald Wolfe (TM3/c), Jacob Tukdarian (S1/c). Front Row: Harold Wilkson (TM3/c), Joseph Curtis (TM1/c), Eugene McClarty (TM1/c), Donald Anderson (TM3/c)