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The Bridge at Toko Ri
07/05/06
I
happened to be at North Andover’s Stevens Memorial
Library when the annual book sale caught my eye. Fifty
cents for paperbacks seemed like a good deal, so I began
my search. Aware of the pending trash tax, I resolved not
to buy on a whim, but only buy books that I was certain
to read and keep.
The great cover on “The Bridges at Toko-Ri” and
its famous author, James Michener, — not to mention
the book’s byline, “A great American novelist’s
stirring tribute to the carriers, the planes and the men
of the U.S. Navy” — seemed like a certain
bargain. I paid my fifty cents and headed for home with
great anticipation. Only after sitting down for a good
read did I discover that I had been ripped off! The book
had a retail price displayed on the cover of 45 cents.
So much for my bargain hunting skills!
As it turned out, however, the book was a bargain. While
a work of fiction, it tells a very realistic story about
the experiences of those who piloted jet fighters in the
Korean War — the first war that jets ruled the sky,
the deck crews who supported launch/recovery operations,
and the helicopter rescue crews who, all-to-often, had to
pull downed pilots from the icy waters off North Korea.
Michener’s genius is his ability to make the reader
feel that he is there, right next to the men of Task
Force 77 whose mission was to destroy the Communist-held
bridges at Toko-Ri.
One minute you are kneeling on the flight deck of the
Savo with freezing salt spray stinging your face. As you
watch a pilot salute, the catapult officer whips his
right hand down, the catapult fires, and nine tons of jet
aircraft are slammed into the night sky and slowly
disappear.
The next minute you are standing on a platform jutting
out of the side of the carrier next to “Beer Barrel,”
the best carrier landing officer in the Navy. As the deck
rolls and lifts and falls, Beer Barrel has an uncanny
ability to direct approaching planes so they will slam
safely on the deck and catch an early wire. “Don’t
fly the deck! Don’t fly the sea! Fly me!” yells
Beer Barrel as he flashes his paddles at an incoming
pilot.
But, of course, the most exciting moments are when you
are strapped in beside the pilot of a Banshee as he dives
through enemy flak to bomb the bridges at Toko-Ri. And
then you hear a plinking-thud. You are hit. One engine
explodes and shreds the plane with turbine fragments as
it disintegrates. You realize that you may never make if
out of Korea and even if you do you will face a crash
landing in an icy sea and will freeze to death in under
20 minutes. Excitement turns to panic.
The only shortcoming of “The Bridges at Toko-Ri”
is that it is over too quickly. At 106 pages, it takes
only a couple hours to read. I guess I’ll just have
to find another Michener novel to pass the summer.
Oh, I checked the Internet for other Michener books for
sale and found the same edition of “The Bridges at
Toko-Ri” for $5. I knew it was a good deal!
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The June, 2006 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 8,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover, Methuen, Haverhill,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury and Lowell.
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Valley Patriot Archive
Prior columns by TomDuggan
Classroom Credit to Support
Terrorism?
Editorial
1
Trash Talk in N. Andover
Editorial
2
The NY Times & Treason
Actions Speak Louder Than
Platitudes
Tom Duggan's Notebook
Mill City Maulers To Play Stadium
Planning for our Future
The Day of Reckoning in N.A.
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