The Real Story of the USS Johnston DD-821
As Told by the Officers and Sailors Who Served Aboard Her
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Narrated by:
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CAPT Kevin F. Spalding USNR-Ret
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By:
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George A Sites
About this listen
A compilation of real stories told by more than 90 former officers and sailors who served aboard the USS Johnston DD-821. The stories are in each sailor's or officer's own words. It includes stories from commissioning to decommissioning plus WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, and the cold war. A must-hear for any former destroyer sailor or officer, or anyone simply interested in US naval history.
©2010 George A. Sites (P)2015 George A .SitesListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
In 1942, the island of Malta was the most heavily bombed place on earth. Its submarine and air attacks on Axis supply convoys were all that kept Rommel from marching across North Africa. But Malta was out of fuel. Operation Pedestal was Malta's last hope, a giant convoy with more that 50 warships escorting 13 freighters and one life-or-death oil tanker, the SS Ohio. It was bombed, torpedoed, and abandoned, but two American Merchant Mariners boarded the ship and repaired the guns.
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A spellbinding story
- By James F. Geary on 04-08-07
By: Sam Moses
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Crossing the Line
- A Bluejacket's World War II Odyssey
- By: Alvin Kernan
- Narrated by: Ted Stoddard
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Abridged
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A gifted storyteller, Kernan gives a candid account of his experiences during World War II, providing shrewd observations about the culture and ideology of an important era in naval history.
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Good, But I Prefer Silent Running
- By Wolfpacker on 07-22-08
By: Alvin Kernan
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In Harm's Way
- The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
- By: Doug Stanton
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. An estimated 300 men were killed upon impact; close to 900 sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean, where they remained undetected by the navy for nearly four days and nights. Battered by a savage sea, they struggled to stay alive, fighting off sharks, hypothermia, and dementia. By the time rescue arrived, all but 317 men had died. The captain's subsequent court-martial left many questions unanswered
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Captivating
- By Clarence Sparks on 10-22-16
By: Doug Stanton
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Thunder Below!
- The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II
- By: Eugene B. Fluckey
- Narrated by: Corey Snow
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the leadership of her fearless skipper, Captain Gene Fluckey, the Barb sank the greatest tonnage of any American sub in World War II. At the same time, the Barb did far more than merely sink ships-she changed forever the way submarines stalk and kill their prey.
This is a gripping adventure chock-full of "you-are-there" moments. Fluckey has drawn on logs, reports, letters, interviews, and a recently discovered illegal diary kept by one of his torpedomen.
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Action, Excitement, & History. A great read!
- By Boone on 09-28-13
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Steel Boat Iron Hearts
- A U-boat Crewman's Life Aboard U-505
- By: Hans Goebeler, John Vanzo
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Using his own experiences, log books, and correspondence with other U-boat crewmen, Hans Goebeler offers rich and personal details about what life was like in the German Navy under Hitler. Since his first and last posting was to U-505, Goebeler's perspective of the crew, commanders, and war patrols paints a vivid and complete portrait unlike any other to come out of the Kriegsmarine. He witnessed it all, from deadly sabotage efforts that almost sunk the boat to the tragic suicide of the only U-boat commander who took his life during World War II.
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Not impressed with the narration
- By Andrew on 08-20-16
By: Hans Goebeler, and others
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Indianapolis
- By: Lynn Vincent, Sara Vladic
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the Philippine Sea when she is sunk by two Japanese torpedoes. For the next five nights and four days, almost 300 miles from the nearest land, nearly 900 men battle injuries, sharks, dehydration, insanity, and eventually each other. Only 316 will survive. Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story of the ship, her crew, and their final mission to save one of their own.
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As good as In Harm's Way but different
- By tru britty on 07-13-18
By: Lynn Vincent, and others
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Left for Dead
- A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis
- By: Pete Nelson, Hunter Scott - preface
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of sea battles, adventures, and war stories like Unbroken, this is the incredible true story of a boy who helps to bring closure to the survivors of the tragic sinking of the USS Indianapolis, and helps exonerate the ship's captain 50 years later. Hunter Scott first learned about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis by watching the movie Jaws when he was just 11 years old. This was 50 years after the ship had sunk, throwing more than 1,000 men into shark-infested waters - a long 50 years in which justice still had not been served.
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Incredible story, incredible book!
- By Marty on 01-24-21
By: Pete Nelson, and others
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D-Days in the Pacific with the U.S. Coast Guard
- The Story of Lucky Thirteen
- By: Ken Wiley
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The images of soldiers and marines coming ashore on hostile shores are embedded in our collective memory of World War II. But what of the sailors who manned the landing craft, going back and forth under fire with nowhere to take cover, their craft the special targets of enemy gunners? In this book, Ken Wiley, a Coast Guardsman on an Attack Transport in the Pacific, relates the intricate, often nerve-wracking story of how the United States projected its power across 6,000 miles in the teeth of fanatical Japanese resistance.
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Exceptional story depicting the US Coast Guard
- By Jay J. Powell on 03-21-19
By: Ken Wiley
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Swift Boats at War in Vietnam
- By: Guy Gugliotta, John Yeoman, Neva Sullaway
- Narrated by: David Colacci, Susan Ericksen
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Developed specifically for the Vietnam War, Swift Boats were versatile craft "big enough to outrun anything they couldn't outfight" but too small to handle even a moderate ocean chop, too loud to sneak up on anyone, and too flimsy to withstand the mildest of rocket attacks. This made more difficult an already tough mission: navigating coastal waters for ships and sampans smuggling contraband to the Viet Cong, disrupting enemy supply lines on the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta, and inserting SEALs behind enemy lines.
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Ride with the Swift Boats
- By Robert Lion on 05-01-18
By: Guy Gugliotta, and others
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Torpedo Run
- The Story of WWII Submarine Hero Eugene B. Fluckey
- By: Don Keith
- Narrated by: Vincent Caruso
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the course of five combat patrols during the Pacific War, Commander Fluckey reinvented submarine warfare, pioneering audacious strategies to hunt and sink Japanese warships and merchant vessels. At the helm of the USS Barb, he directed his boat to attack warship convoys - never mind the lop-sided odds - and to slip into heavily defended enemy harbors to launch torpedoes at unsuspecting targets.
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Fluckey was a legend.
- By Sarah H. on 10-28-24
By: Don Keith
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Pacific Glory
- World War II Navy, Book 1
- By: P. T. Deutermann
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Marsh Vincent, Mick McCarty, and Tommy Lewis were inseparable friends during their naval academy years, each man in love with the beautiful, unattainable Glory Hawthorne. Only Tommy wins her heart and marries Glory after graduation. Different skills set the three men on separate paths in the Navy, but they are all forever changed by the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.
Glory, now Tommy’s widow, is a tough Navy nurse still grieving her loss while trying to save lives at the Pearl Harbor naval hospital.
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Best of PT Deutermann
- By MM on 11-27-11
By: P. T. Deutermann
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PT 105
- By: Dick Keresey
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Admittedly small and vulnerable, PT boats were, nevertheless, fast - the fastest craft on the water during World War II - and Dick Keresey's account of these tough little fighters throws new light on their contributions to the war effort. As captain of PT 105, the author was in the same battle as John F. Kennedy when Kennedy's PT 109 was rammed and sunk. The famous incident, Keresey says, has often been described inaccurately and the PT boat depicted as unreliable and ineffective.
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Highly recommended I couldn't stop listening!
- By Curtis Graf on 08-17-17
By: Dick Keresey
What listeners say about The Real Story of the USS Johnston DD-821
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kingsley
- 11-24-15
A little repetitive but very interesting
While George Stiles is listed as the author of this book, he isn't really. He's the curator, collecting stories from dozens of shipmates who sailed on USS Johnston DD-821 and organising them. Each story is told by the shipmate in their own words, telling of their experience on the ship. Stiles has done great work in searching these guys out and collecting their stories, he also tells a little of the history of the ship to provide context to the stories.
The book actually opens not with USS Johnston DD-821 but with it's predecessor USS Johnston DD-557, a WW2 Destroyer that was sunk in the battle of Leyte Gulf, from which DD-821 get's its name (and before that the name came from a USN Civil War veteran. Stiles has collected a story from DD-557 telling a first hand account of the battle and sinking, before moving to the DD-821 stories.
As Stiles opening admits in his introduction, many of these stories get a little repetitive, as the often cover the same or similar situations. Even with the repetition the stories are all interesting, mostly because of the different voices they are told in. Some a very factual, some a more comedic telling of antics on and off the ship, some are "we almost made a cold war hot" stories and some a simply shout outs to friends they served with. It's a great mix, showing the variety of people and events the ship has seen.
The stories cover the 25-odd years of service of the ship, and covers a few interesting time periods (stories reference shooting of JFK, Cuban missile crisis and a few others).
Stiles closes by providing some details on what happened with the ship after it was decommissioned from the USN - sold to Taiwan and eventually sunk (interestingly wikipedia lists fate as "unknown").
The narrator, Capt Kevin F. Spalding USNR-Ret, does well with the narration. He is crisp and clear and easy to understand. Nothing outstanding, but he made the subject matter easy to follow.
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- EP
- 01-07-16
A piece of US Navy history
Would you listen to The Real Story of the USS Johnston DD-821 again? Why?
Yes-because I love history, especially military history
What other book might you compare The Real Story of the USS Johnston DD-821 to and why?
Any number of audiobooks on military history
Have you listened to any of CAPT Kevin F. Spalding USNR-Ret’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
N/A
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I was moved multiple times on the immense bravery and commitment of the men on the ships (note: there were two!)
Any additional comments?
I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review
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- Darren
- 07-15-16
Life on the open seas during the cold war
If you could sum up The Real Story of the USS Johnston DD-821 in three words, what would they be?
Real salior stories.
What other book might you compare The Real Story of the USS Johnston DD-821 to and why?
I would compare it to George's earlier titles Combat Veterans. As it compiles a series of stories compiled directly from the men and women from all standings who were abord the ship.
What about CAPT Kevin F. Spalding USNR-Ret’s performance did you like?
I have listened to Keven narrate 3 books in total now, all military based and his style and tone suites these books perfectly in my opinion, his voice certainlt gives weight to the stories.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
The Sea Guardian
Any additional comments?
I found this book very enjoyable. There were a lot of small facts and interesting points given by the men who shared their stories abord the USS Johnston which gave a good sense of the everyday life serving abord the ship, from the cooks' mess to the C.O.
*I received this book for free in return for an honest review.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-29-15
Great Read For Any Navy Vet
If you could sum up The Real Story of the USS Johnston DD-821 in three words, what would they be?
Brought Back A Lot Old Memories Being A Navy Vet Myself
Who was your favorite character and why?
ALL
Which character – as performed by CAPT Kevin F. Spalding USNR-Ret – was your favorite?
ALL
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
None
Any additional comments?
Enjoyed Listening To It Very Much
"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kathy
- 01-21-16
USS Johnston, Great story and entertainment
Where does The Real Story of the USS Johnston DD-821 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Each genre is different and this is one of the best military books I have listened to. It had great detail with a personal touch on each of the stories.
What did you like best about this story?
Having the sailors tell their most interesting stories added a very personal touch. It was more than just historical information.
What about CAPT Kevin F. Spalding USNR-Ret’s performance did you like?
The story is well read and clearly spoken by Kevin Spalding.clearly spoken
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The emotion and pride that the stories portrayed demonstrates the quality of our military personnel.
Any additional comments?
A very good book worth listening to.
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- John
- 02-09-16
Great Stories
Any additional comments?
Kevin Spalding brings to life the stories of the crew of the USS Johnston, and gathered by George Sites. Together they give you a glimpse in time of the life of a Navy ship. They capture the life of a Sailor through his own eyes, regardless of decade or rank, and really gives you a true appreciation for the men that stood the watch day in and day out for our country. I was particularly taken with the stories of the USS Johnston and crew during World War II, and felt like I was really there listening to Kevin Spalding recount the narrative offered by the surviving crew member.
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- Master Barber
- 06-25-23
What I wish I had.
The stories are great. Sounds like the Navy I thought I was joining, but I got something a little different but as different as my time some 25 years after Johnston's decommissioning may have been some things stay the same.
I enjoyed it very much.
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