No Ordinary Joes, Larry Colton
No Ordinary Joes, Larry Colton
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No Ordinary Joes
The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life

Author: Larry Colton

Narrator: Robert Fass

Unabridged: 12 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/05/2010


Synopsis

Their names were Bob Palmer, Gordy Cox, Tim McCoy, and Chuck Vervalin, and in 1941, when they joined the navy, they were not trying to prove their patriotism—they were just looking for a job that would provide "three hots and a cot."

But on April 22, 1943, the war took a terrible turn for them. While on patrol deep in enemy waters, their submarine, the USS Grenadier, was torpedoed and sent crashing to the ocean floor. Listed as lost in action and given up for dead, all four had in fact miraculously escaped the ship, only to be captured by the Japanese. The four men spent the next two and a half years as POWs, enduring barbaric torture and starvation, unable to communicate with their wives and families. When they were freed, they were forced to find a new kind of resilience as they struggled to resume their lives in a world that seemed to have forgotten them. In Bob's case, it would be more than thirty years before he was reunited with the love of his life—the wife who had left him for a well-bred naval officer after he came back from the war.

By turns panoramic and intimate, No Ordinary Joes shows us, through the lives of four "ordinary" men who endured extraordinary circumstances, the tragedy of war and its aftermath, and the restorative power of love.

About Larry Colton

Since his days as a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, Larry Colton has taught high school, worked for Nike, and written three books. Between 1976 and 2000, his articles appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Boston Globe, Sports Illustrated, Ladies' Home Journal, Esquire, and other publications. He is the author of Goat Brothers and Counting Coup, which won the Frankfurt eBook Award for Nonfiction.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Debbie on March 06, 2020

This was a truly extraordinary story about the experiences of men who endured the horrors of the Japanese POW camps during WWII. I had a great uncle who was declared missing in action during the war in the Pacific. He was captured and spent time in the POW camps. I actually never knew growing up as......more

Goodreads review by Brett on August 08, 2012

Finished "No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life" by Larry Colton. This might as well have been a sequel to "The Worst Hard Time" (about the Great Depression) in that it tracked the lives of four sailors from growing up during the Great Depression......more

Goodreads review by Jenn on January 31, 2020

This was a story about 4 submariners from WWII. It told of there horrific experiences as POWs. But it also told of their lives before and after the war. It was a fascinating read.......more

Goodreads review by Jason on February 29, 2012

While no one can take the demands of military service down to another level this book reminds us that many of the "Greatest" generation served not out of duty or love of country: they served because they were teenagers and early twenty somethings living in a country coming out of the Great Depressio......more

Goodreads review by Maria on December 17, 2015

Colton tells the life stories of four members of the USS Grenadier. They were still only teenagers when the crew was captured by the Japanese and they spent two years in prisoners of war. Different than other submarine books, Colton tells of their early childhood and their later life. Why I started t......more