What I’m Reading – The Last Word by Ron Miner

Picture it.

It’s 2038 (not that far in the future). A nobody reporter from a nothing of a newspaper (even if it isn’t printed anymore) is on his way to a town in the middle of nowhere. He has no idea why he’s been handed the assignment, but he’s been asked for by name.

And it’s a plumb assignment. This interview is one no one has ever had or ever will again because the clock is ticking. His interview is with a man named Owen Trimble and it seems he’s the last surviving man to have fought in World War II.

Enough talking about what it’s about. it’s such a good story that I don’t want to give many plot points away. Ron Miner has written several books about the PBY-5 Catalina (often called “Cats”) and its crews. That’s probably what caught my attention about since it’s one of my favorite aircraft. I’ve a model of one that I built a couple of dozen years ago in my office and it sits next to the starship Enterprise (“NCC-1701. No bloody A, B, C, or D”).

Anyway, the author had done dozens of interviews with the men who’d flown aboard the Cats in WW II. He took these stories and wove a narrative around them, cobbling them into a coherent and at times, gut-wrenching story of real-world missions. There’s laughter, tears, and characters I would have loved to have sat down to coffee with.

There’s a few what I call “Forrest Gump” moments where the central character encounters historic moments. He’s at the attack on Pearl Harbor (wasn’t supposed to be there – he was just a kid). Or when they’re on the island of Tinian, he sees a guy painting a name on a B-29 and asks why there was no girl on it as well. The painter tells him the plane is named after the pilot’s mother (I’ll let you figure it out from there).

Ron pulls off a twist in the story that floored me. I won’t give it away, but I’m sure that twist happened more than once in the real world. It’s one we just don’t want to think about.

I will tell you the last recorded word that Owen says in the book. It’s a simple word. “Remember.”

It’s that word that sparks the rest of this review. Every good book should impact you on a gut level and this book does. It got me thinking that somewhere around 2080 or 2090, a headline will read that the last Gulf War vet has died. Not long after that, we will see the same concerning the War on Terror vets. Already, there’s no WW I vets left. WW II vets are few in number. Korea isn’t far behind. and somewhere around 2050 there won’t be a lot of ‘Nam vets left.

The book should be a reminder that the clock is ticking for us. The stories we carry in our heads are vanishing at an alarming rate. This is history. Family history. Grab that recorder. Record it. Commit it to paper and stick it in the family Bible. Sit down with Grandpa or Dad. Sit down with your siblings and get their stories. Once they die, the stories are gone.

Their stories won’t wait.