His miraculous, untold story of survival on December 7, 1941
Burned over 2/3rds of his body, Don spent a year recovering in a military hospital
Inspiringly, Don reenlisted in 1944 and would join the invasion of Okinawa, earning the rare distinction of having served at both the first and last battles of WWII
Don Stratton is 1 of only 5 survivors of the USS Arizona still alive today
Now 94, Don has been married to his wife Velma (90 years old) for 66 years
All the Gallant Men argues the lessons of Dec 7th still resonate seventy-five years later
William Morrow is proud to announce the publication of ALL THE GALLANT MEN: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor (William Morrow Hardcover; November 22, 2016; $27.99; ISBN: 9780062645357), the extraordinary first and only memoir by a survivor of the USS Arizona has already been lauded as “intimate and powerful” (Library Journal). Out of a crew of 1,511 men on the Arizona, only 334 survived and 94-year-old Donald Stratton is 1 of only 5 survivors alive today.

On December 7, 1941, the Arizona was moored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, alongside seven other American battleships. At 7:55 a.m., the leisurely Sunday morning’s serenity was broken by the drone of bomb-laden Japanese Zeros swooping from the sky. The Arizona was the first battleship targeted in a massive attack by Japan; 353 imperial war planes swarmed Battleship Row and neighboring Hickam Airfield in a meticulously planned surprise assault launched to cripple America’s Pacific Fleet.

Amid the terrifying chaos of explosions and incessant machine gun fire, 19-year-old Seaman First Class Donald Stratton raced to his battle station on the Arizona. Barely fifteen minutes into the attack, a 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb hit the ship, setting off a million pounds of munitions and 180,000 gallons of aviation fuel aboard. The explosion lifted the battleship out of the water causing the forward deck to buckle, and engulfed it in an enormous fifty-foot fireball that tore through the anti-aircraft platform where Don and his team were stationed.

Burned over more than sixty-five percent of his body, Don and his gunnery team miraculously escaped the inferno; using their charred hands, they climbed across a seventy-foot-long rope stretched forty-five feet above flaming, oil-slicked water to reach the Vestal moored nearby. While Don made it out alive, 1,177 of his crewmates perished—more than half the Americans killed in the attacks that drew America into the largest armed conflict in history.