{"product_id":"this-mans-navy-from-prairie-fields-to-battleship-quarters-2","title":"This Man's Navy: From Prairie Fields to Battleship Quarters","description":"Melvin Beckstrand was hunting fox on horseback near Warwick, N.D., the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. Two weeks later he was in the U.S. Navy. Two months later he was on board the biggest battleship in the U.S. Navy--the USS Washington. Sixty years later, Mel's journal gives a glimpse of the life of a North Dakota Farm boy turned sailor. With a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye, he describes boot camp, riotous train rides with high spiritied new recruits and getting lost on the huge ship. Things became more serious when the battleship aided the British Navy in the North Atlantic and sailed through the Panama Canal and into the battles of the South Pacific. As an ordinary sailor, Beckstrand barely knew where he was, and never really knew why. Co-author Susanne Retka Schill gives us that context, filling in the dramatic history--the history writ large--behind this journal of a common sailor--history writ small. Published on the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, the journal gives and important first person account of war as seen through the eyes of a young man raised far from the sea.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 0976654709\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: RDV.0976654709.VG\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Very Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Melvin Beckstrand|Susanne Retka Schill|Beckstrand, Melvin|Schill, Susanne Retka\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: This book is in excellent condition. There may be minimal writing on the inside cover or cover page. Cover image on the book may vary from photo. Ships out quickly in a secure plastic mailer.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Reliant Bookstore","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47377041817777,"sku":"RDV.0976654709.VG","price":16.57,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0544\/8872\/7729\/files\/0976654709-0_ade40d0a-6dee-4176-8198-b746954e3bf2.jpg?v=1781114711","url":"https:\/\/www.reliantbookstore.com\/products\/this-mans-navy-from-prairie-fields-to-battleship-quarters-2","provider":"Reliant Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}