BUSH SENSED THAT WHITE AND DELANEY HAD NOT MADE IT ATB, 51.
BUSH SAT IN THE RAFT IN TEARS Ibid. "I'm afraid I was pretty much of a sissy about it cause I sat in my raft and sobbed for awhile," Bush wrote his parents. (Ibid.) HE THOUGHT OF DELANEY AND OF WHITE, OF BARBARA Author interview with GHWB; ATB, 52.
BUSH HEARD THE ZOOMING ATB, 51.
TIPPING THEIR WINGS Ibid.
THE FINBACK WAS COMMANDED Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 11415, 121.
"I THOUGHT MAYBE" Author interview with GHWB.
FOUR ENLISTED MEN CAME OUT Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 118.
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER RALPH ADAMS SWAM Ibid.
"WELCOME ABOARD, SIR" Ibid., 11819. See also LF, 3839. Footage of GHWB's rescue was taken by Ensign Bill Edward of the USS Finback.
IT WAS FOUR MINUTES SHY OF NOON Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 119.
SHOT HIS RAFT TO PIECES Ibid.
BUSH'S FIRST PRIORITY Ibid.
"AND BELIEVED THAT THEY HAD JUMPED" Ibid.; ATB, 52.
"ALL IN ALL" ATB, 52.
"MY HEART ACHES" Ibid., 5152.
HE HAD BARELY ESCAPED DEATH LF, 32.
LATER LEARNED THAT CHICHI-JIMA Ibid. See also Hearn, Sorties into Hell.
"IT WORRIES ME-IT TERRIFIES ME" Author interview with GHWB.
"DID I DO ENOUGH" Ibid. To Joe Hyams, Bush recalled: "I had this very deep and profound gratitude and a sense of wonder. Sometimes when there is a disaster, people will pray, 'Why me?' In an opposite way I had the same question: why had I been spared, and what did God have in store for me?" (Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 132.) "MY MOTHER AND DAD" Author interview with GHWB.
"I TRY TO THINK ABOUT IT" GHWB to "Dear Mum and Dad," September 6 [, 1944], George Bush Material, WWII Correspondence, VIC.
ONE OFFICER, LIEUTENANT GERALDYN REDMOND, WROTE HOME Norman K. Toerge to Prescott S. Bush, October 11, 1944, George Bush Material, WWII Correspondence, VIC.
"IT WAS TRANSFORMING" Author interview with GHWB.
A SUBMARINE CREATED I am indebted to Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 12531, for details about Bush's time on the Finback.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF STRESS GHWB to "Dear Mum and Dad," September 16, 1944, World War II Correspondence, GHWB Personal Papers, GBPL.
BUSH STOOD WATCHES Ibid.
THE FOOD WAS EXCELLENT Ibid.
HIS EYE WAS HEALED GHWB to "Dear Mum and Dad," September 16, 1944, GHWB Personal Papers, GBPL.
HE PITCHED IN AS A CENSOR Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 133. Bush also scanned other men's letters on the San Jacinto, an experience he credited with giving him insights into the passions and problems of others, a point he made to Tom Brokaw many years later. For Bush's letter to Brokaw, see ATB, 61114.
ON THE FINBACK HE READ GHWB to "Dear Mum and Dad," September 16, 1944, GHWB Personal Papers, GBPL.
AFTER A MONTH'S STAY ATB, 5455.
"I DIDN'T WANT TO GO HOME" Author interview with GHWB.
THE TEXAS FLAG WAS FLYING "A Short History of the San Jacinto: May 3, 1944September 14, 1945," George Bush WWII Binder, USS San Jacinto, Navy File, Don Rhodes Collection, GBPL.
"ALL DURING THE TIME" GHWB to "Dear Mum and Dad," November 3[, 1944], George Bush Material, WWII Correspondence, VIC.
"HE OFFERED ME A JOB" Ibid.
"BY THE TIME THIS GETS TO YOU" Ibid.
"I AM A LITTLE ANXIOUS" Ibid.
"I THINK YOU HAD BETTER NOT MENTION" GHWB to "Dear Mum and Dad," September 27[, 1944], World War II Correspondence, GHWB Personal Papers, GBPL.
A LETTER ARRIVED FROM PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 14344. The Bushes stayed in touch with the Delaneys through the years; in his old age, Bush said, "They still feel the horror of this." (Author interview with GHWB.) "NO, NOT DREAMING" Author interview with GHWB.
HE WAS AWARDED Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 137.
"I FINISHED THE BOMBING RUN" Author interview with GHWB.
BUSH FLEW A COMBAT MISSION OVER MANILA BAY Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 14446.
"WELL...WE MADE IT" Ibid, 146.
BY LATE NOVEMBER 1944 Grab, "Flyboy," unpublished manuscript, 19.
FINDING TRANSPORTATION TO SAN DIEGO Ibid.
HE KNEW HE SOON WOULD BE BACK IN THE PACIFIC LF, 41. Bush always believed that service at sea, however difficult, was vastly preferable, on a personal basis, to service in ground forces. "This was a very easy war compared to ground combat," Bush recalled of his service. "You weren't up close and personal with the enemy. You didn't have to see them in the eyeballs before you shot him, or he shot you. It was impersonal. You'd fly, and you'd land back on the carrier and you'd go in and you'd have clean sheets and nice milkshakes, whereas the marines on these islands were slogging through the dirt. So we were better off. We had a better deal in the sense of suffering and hardship. But it's an experience that has stayed with me and will stay with me forever." (Author interview with GHWB.) EIGHT: Life Lay Ahead of Us V-J DAY ARRIVED BB, 25.
I'LL ALWAYS WONDER Author interview with GHWB.
ELABORATELY DECORATED FOR CHRISTMAS Author interview with BPB.
WHEN THE TELEPHONE RANG Ibid.
WITHIN AN HOUR Ibid.
ON A COLD SATURDAY LSY, 61; BB, 23. Barbara remembered that the day was "lovely, [and] cold." (Ibid.) For my details of the wedding, I drew on NYT, January 7, 1945; LSY, 61; BB, 23; author interview with BPB; Green, George Bush, 40; Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 15051.
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BB, 23.
"A GOWN OF IVORY SATIN" NYT, January 7, 1945; LSY, 61.
WORE HIS DRESS BLUE LSY, 61; Green, George Bush, 40; Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 150.
GEORGE'S SISTER, NANCY NYT, January 7, 1945.
SERVED AS BEST MAN Ibid.
THE PIERCES HOSTED A LARGE RECEPTION LSY, 61.
"A PARTY OF WOMEN" Author interview with BPB.
THERE THE NEWLYWEDS WATCHED BB, 23.
TOOK A SLEEPER TRAIN DOWN THE EAST COAST Ibid.
JUST ABOUT THE ONLY YOUNG COUPLE THERE Author interview with BPB.
DANCE LESSONS, WHICH BORED BUSH Ibid.
AS PART OF A NEW COMBAT SQUADRON Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 152. See also BB, 23.
AT NAVAL AIR STATION GROSSE ILE IN MICHIGAN ATB, 57.
"IT IS SORT OF A" Ibid., 58.
IN THE LEWISTON-AUBURN AREA Notes on GHWB's World War II naval training provided by the GBPL archives staff to the author.
"I REMEMBER CRYING" Author interview with GHWB.
"WE WERE SICK" BB, 24.
BUSH WAS SCHEDULED TO REPORT Gar Hole, Stan Butchard, Lou Grab, Jack Guy, "George Bush Was No 'Wimp,' Say His Combat Buddies," Washington Times, March 28, 1997, Miscellaneous Navy Materials, Post-Presidential Materials, GHWB Collection, GBPL.
"EVERYTHING I'D EXPERIENCED" LF, 41.
AT TEN P.M. EASTERN TIME Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1945 (Washington, D.C., 1961), 25457.
"WITHIN MINUTES OUR NEIGHBORHOOD" LF, 41.
"LOUD, WILD, AND FAIRLY LIQUID" BB, 25.
THE BUSHES SLIPPED OFF LF, 41.
ONE IMAGE FROM THE WAR Ibid., 34.
"JUST A FEW YARDS" Ibid.
"I'LL ALWAYS WONDER" Author interview with GHWB.
ON A SUMMER DAY IN 1945 Author interview with William T. "Bucky" Bush.
"VERY SKINNY" Ibid.
"I THOUGHT HE'D CONQUERED" Ibid.
DISCHARGED FROM ACTIVE DUTY Notes on GHWB's World War II naval service provided by the GBPL archives staff to the author.
HE HAD SERVED Ibid.; Naftali, GHWB, 9.
BUSH WAS DECORATED Notes on military awards of GHWB provided by the GBPL archives staff to the author.
"WE WERE STILL YOUNG" LF, 41.
YALE ENROLLED 8,500 MEN Emerson Stone, "The Way We Were in 'Poppy's' Days," Yale Alumni Magazine, February 1989, 44.
WHEN BUSH MATRICULATED Ibid.
HE HAD TOYED WITH THE IDEA OF SKIPPING YALE ATB, 46.
UNCLE HERBIE WALKER Author interview with GHWB.
BUSH'S FATHER, WHO STRONGLY BELIEVED ATB, 48.
ARMY AND NAVY UNITS WERE BILLETED Stone, "Way We Were in 'Poppy's' Days," 45.
ROWS OF QUONSET HUTS WERE BUILT Ibid.
LATER DESCRIBED AS THE "DE RIGUEUR...MARK" Ibid, 44.
"SOME OF US ARE TOTTERING VETERANS" "Social History," in 1948 Class Book Yale University, ed. Thomas Frank Strook (New Haven, Conn., 1948), 49.
THAT OF HIS FATHER LF, 4344.
THE USUAL UNDERGRADUATE GRIPES "Social History," 49.
IN TWO AND A HALF YEARS ATB, 61; Naftali, GHWB, 910, is a useful summary of GHWB's Yale career.
"I WAS MAJORING" LF, 44.
THERE WAS F.S.C. NORTHROP NYT, May 28, 1989.
SAMUEL HEMINGWAY IN SHAKESPEARE Stone, "Way We Were in 'Poppy's' Days," 46.
PAUL HINDEMITH IN MUSIC Ibid.
HISTORY OF ART 36, A CLASS IN AMERICAN FURNITURE NYT, May 28, 1989; BB, 26.