Yesterday was the 68th Anniversary of the Doolittle Raids. Mere months after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, 16 B25-Mitchells were FLOWN off of an aircraft carrier to bomb Tokyo. These were not planes built to be flown off of carriers…And the crews knew there was not enough fuel to get them back to the ship, but only enough to hopefully get them to China.

When I visited the USS Hornet this past week, I said a quiet prayer for these amazing men. I was standing on the dock where they stood. Wow. (The Hornet, by the way is the 2nd Hornet that was put into commission sometime in 1944, the 1st Hornet was sunk by the Navy after being severely damaged in a typhoon).

Two years ago, I was blessed to go to luncheon and symposium that the surviving Raiders and their families attend. In reading through the news of the most recent reunion held this past weekend in Dayton, OH, I was sad to read that three of the gentlemen in the raids have passed away since 2008, and of the eight surviving Raiders, only four were healthy enough to travel and attend.  There are eight survivors now.

I’m sad when I think of the sheer volume of stories that will never be told, never be heard, as we lose this generation. Will future generations remember what these men and women did during WWII, or will it become simply a paragraph in a history book? I feel so blessed that I have been able to chat with veterans of this generation, hear their personal stories, be reminded that there is more to war than a series of events, but that there are real people behind it.

I’ve seen some of the criticism about the new HBO Series The Pacific. I remember talking to George Pelecanos as he was beginning to work on the project back in 2008. Some say it’s not about the war, it’s really about the men in that Marine Battalion. I understand that people want to know about the war, what happened in the Pacific Theater. And I want to know the facts of what happened in Guam, and the Guadal Canal, and Pearl Harbor and Normandy and Berlin and London. But I also want to know about the people, because we lose so much when we fail to look beyond the facts.

From  Breena Clarke author of River, Cross My Heart and Stand the Storm:

There is balance as a writer. It is a solitary profession in many respects. One thing that has been fortunate for me is that before my first book was published, I worked full time in an office and part time at my writing. After River, Cross My Heart, I was able to write full time. I do have a lot of buddies and friends, I’m married and I have my dogs. I have a nice little social circle, and when I was working full time, I used public transportation. Having contact with people, just looking at them and watching them, is a great asset. It’s interesting to try and read what they are thinking, seeing their faces and bodies and attitudes and being sketch out them as characters. I have continued to do that when I can. Now that writing full time, one thing that was most difficult was (took an early retirement) was the thought I could write all day. I thought how fabulous it would be, but it doesn’t work that way. No one works twenty-four-hours a day. It took me quite awhile to achieve a schedule. For the first time, I was in charge of my whole schedule.

From an interview with author, screenwriter, and television producer George Pelecanos:

It was at a point that many hardboiled detective novels were more about the WHY rather than the WHO. I had gone down there (with the police) and hung out and done the street work, and I saw a different possibility and changed direction. I look at it as a form of reporting and you have to feel the dirt between your fingers. I talk to people, and I listen. An afternoon of work can consist of walking into a bar and ordering a beer and listening to people talk, riding the bus down the avenue, or just getting outside and hanging out with people. What I try to do is to front load all my research – spend a couple of months being out there – with police, prison, parole officer, humane society officers. It’s part of the job. You have to get enough ammunition to write a book, then come home and lock yourself in for five or six months – day and night – and everything (due to my research) is there at my feet.

When you are researching, I keep it all in my head. It intimidates people when you pull out a pad or a tape recorder. Then, when you get home, you make your notes.

The trick now, is to take those observations and write them down into something substantial and cohesive.

(win a signed copy of his book at All Things Girl)

Just a reminder that the mid-issue update of All Things Girl is out there.  Many fabulous additions, including my interview with the Sexy and intelligent George Pelecanos.