Two of My Favorite Younger Men – Sandra’s Occasional Newsletter, Feb 2022

A little bit of news… but not too much. 

 

 

 

 

 

This month the spotlight shines on two young men with new books just released and stories to tell…

 

Clear! by DENNIS R. BLOCKER II is the riveting story of the author’s 23 years working in Emergency Medical Services. Dennis reveals what happens to the minds of those who work in the profession and shares the coping strategies that helped to heal his mind – just in time – from the trauma and horrors he witnessed. The memoir reads like a Raymond Chandler novel. I recommend watching the book trailer. As the narrator, Dennis may have yet another career in his future.

Bill and I met Dennis at a USS Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) National Association reunion for World War II veterans. He was the group’s Historian of the Pacific War and working on a book about his grandfather, Clifford Lemke, who served on LCI-449 in the Pacific Theater. (The book was published in 2016 as The Heart of Hell: The Untold Story of Courage and Sacrifice in the Shadow of Iwo Jima by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Mitch Weiss with Dennis R. Blocker II as consultant.) Dennis offered to catalogue Bill’s research and writing files – a job which took far more time than estimated – and then delivered the catalogued materials in-person to the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, the repository Bill chose for his papers. Dennis likes to say Bill and I “discovered” him when we asked him to write the Foreword to Pacific Express: The Critical Role of Military Logistics in World War II. Published in 2009, Pacific Express is the top seller in the McGee stable of titles and has been on the Marine Corps Commandant’s Professional and Required Reading List for over a decade. 

 

ZACH S. MORRIS honors his grandfather in When the Beaches Trembled: The Incredible Story of Stephen Ganzberger and the LCIs in World War II.  Zach is the editor-in-chief of LST Scuttlebutt, the quarterly magazine newsletter of the U.S. LST (Landing Ship, Tank) Association, and is the former editor-in-chief of Elsie Item, the quarterly magazine newsletter of the USS Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) National Association.

Over the years, Zach has taken my “just the facts” media releases and kicked them up a bunch of notches with his ad man flair. Zach is an award-winning senior financial analyst and certified screenwriter. When the Beaches Trembled is his first book. 

I very much admire these two young men who have devoted a good deal of their lives to honor their grandfathers’ service in World War II. Bill and I have received many, many emails and letters from the sons or daughters, grandsons or granddaughters, of the Greatest Generation, asking for our help in learning more about their father’s or grandfather’s service in the war. Bill felt strongly about preserving such memories and to that end he wrote  How To Research and Write Your Military Memoirs – Answers to 8 Frequently Asked Questions, available to download as a PDF fileat no charge.

The Divorce Seekers

The commemorative edition of the “bible of the Reno divorce ranch era” is on the shelf for a few months while I declutter and prepare to move. Though the move is only a mile away, it’s still a move with all the decisions and stresses that are a part of any move. The Divorce Seekers is currently in development for a streaming series. 

‘Til next time, stay well and take care. As always, I’m open all day and all night for your comments below…