Tales from a Tin Can: The USS Dale from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay (review)

If a ship could talk, what would it say—especially if it had been to war? In Tales from a Tin Can, author Michael Olson resuscitates the battle memories of a U.S. destroyer, which witnessed war against Japan from the infamous bombardment of Pearl Harbor to the day of surrender aboard the USS Missouri. Remembered as “the ship that would not be sunk,” the USS Dale (DD-353) saw its entire crew survive four years of enemy fire in the Pacific theater (4). To tell its Tales, Olson foregrounds first-hand interviews with veteran sailors some sixty years after the Dale’s decommissioning.

Starting with his father (Robert “Pat” Olson), Olson’s work is the product of over 100 h of interviews with over 44 former crewmen. Collected at annual meetings, when veterans “thrown into the melting pot of a reunion . . . would let go and tell stories,” the Tales effectively comprise a collective memoir of one world-class Farragut destroyer (12). A cutting edge ship in its time, it was called a “tin can” like other Farraguts because of its small size and thin hull plating. As Olson explains, “the USS Dale had a story to be told,” and in the company of fellow shipmates, her “tin can sailors” were finally willing to tell it (10). From official duties to everyday banalities, the veterans’ narratives offer a window onto the inner workings of a destroyer ship that ultimately earned twelve battle stars in World War II.

Olson organizes the book chronologically, dividing it into five major sections from 1941 to 1945, for each year of the war. While the first section, “1941,” starts as late as November, it offers the most detailed account of the ship’s life, attesting to the grip that Pearl Harbor continues to hold on U.S. public and veteran memory. It begins with particulars from the month before the Japanese attack, and next offers a sequence of virtual minute-by-minute descriptions of the fateful day of December 7. Short one- to two-paragraph snippets of individual, first-hand recollections depict the more memorable moments of the Japanese raid from the water. The effect of such brief blocks of interviews creates the feeling of an action film, wherein a reel of voices conveys a montage of vivid imagery. Ensuing sections/years follow the Dale in campaigns from the South Pacific, Midway, the Aleutian Islands, and Iwo Jima.

In addition to oral histories, Olson builds the Tales on a broad assortment of other primary sources, from official “Action Reports” to government warnings, Navy photographs, and personal memorabilia. He also quotes generously from diaries ranging from private journals (acquired from some of his interviewees) to official naval documents (including the USS Dale War Diary). In presenting the various data, Olson employs a unique convention that further conveys a sense of documentary footage. Quoted passages are bound together by authoritative commentary that follow one of two distinct literary forms: omniscient narratives, which are found predominantly at the beginning and end of each chapter, and first-person observations, which are inserted generously under the heading of “Author’s Notes.”

The former, more authoritative commentary intimates the form and function of a conventional textbook. Written entirely in the third-person, it frames the veterans’ memories within a broader historical backdrop, transporting the reader to issues of international diplomacy, military planning, and statesmanship. Meanwhile, the latter, more personable “Author’s Notes” routinely punctuate the interviews either as pithy side remarks within interview transcriptions or as longer, separate paragraphs intended to complement the veterans’ stories. Ostensibly serving as helpful asides, the comments proffer insights, details, and even factual corrections that amend occasional inaccuracies in the sailors’ narratives. Occasional citations reveal that much of Olson’s notes are drawn from similarly “personable” sources such as civilian or club Web sites and veterans’ blogs.

The sum of...