A vivid, intimate, and poignant record of 18 months of combat service in the South Pacific. . . . This book stands with Dick Keresey’s memoir, PT 105, as an essential record of small-craft combat in the South Pacific.

– WoodenBoat magazine

This would make a bloody good novel!

– Douglas Reeman

Crash Boat is an amazing blend of the Greatest Generation learning about the South Pacific overlaid with international politics and a brutal war. The writing is seamless, with the reader drawn in on page one. Stand by to be a couch potato—you won’t be disappointed.

– John J. Gobbell, author of the Todd Ingram Series

Just when you thought every possible aspect of World War II in the Pacific had been covered to exhaustion, this fresh new memoir of crash boat service in Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and the Philippines turns up. Told in a no-nonsense but vivid style by the skipper of P-399, this is a true tale of service in an air-sea rescue boat, with storms at sea, daring rescues of crashed planes both ashore and at sea, and the welding together of a crew under wartime stress. A terrific read.

– David Poyer, author of Overthrow and Violent Peace

Wartime memoirs are often action-packed and full of "derring-do." This one is different—in a good way. It is the story of a group of brothers and their challenging life in a war zone aboard a small wooden vessel. The Skipper reminisces about the crew's interactions with indigenous populations and provides wonderful insight into the nuances that need to be addressed when very different cultures must deal with each other under difficult circumstances.

– Al Ross II, coauthor of Allied Coastal Forces