The Way I Saw It

Author: Ken Wiley

ISBN: 978-1-62137-506-7 (eBook)

104 pages

The author writes about the things he knows best; the mid-twentieth century, the environment of that great generation, the unity and dedication that they had, the 15 million plus boys who fought World War II, and the hundreds of stories that they had each day. The stories in the book were selected to give the reader an idea of what he saw over that six year period. Being only fourteen when war was declared on Europe and only sixteen when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he saw how the war affected those at home before he joined the combat overseas. Fortunately, because he was assigned as a Cox'n of an LCVP on an Attack Transport, he saw a lot of different places while island hopping across the Pacific. This series of short stories covers a wide range of time and environmental change. The little town is the author's hometown of Itasca, Texas. It will never leave his thoughts, just like the thirty-two young boys from his school, including one of his brothers and four classmates from the class of '42, who never came back.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ken Wiley was one of five brothers in WWII. Three were in the Army Air Corp, one was in the Army, and he was in the Coast Guard. His brother Joe, co-pilot on a B-17, was killed on his fifth mission over Germany. The third brother, Troy, was also assigned to the Eighth AF and flew B-17s, completing thirty-five missions over Germany. His brother Vic was assigned to the Embassy Service and Ken was a Cox'n of an LCVP landing craft, making seven invasions in the Pacific.

After the war, Ken did his engineering work at Hill College, Texas A&M, eventually completing it at Oklahoma State University. He worked three years for the Soil Conservation Service, two years for Bell Helicopter as a hydraulics design engineer, twenty-four years at Ling Temco Vaught, a diverse defense and commercial business contractor, moving from Liaison Engineer to Vice President of Marketing. Upon his retirement, he was called to help Nation Presort introduce new equipment for eleven years. He then worked independently as an Operational Analyst and consultant. He formed his own company, based on patent and software copyrights that he had designed, and operated the company for eleven years. When he eventually retired in 2006, he wrote and published Lucky Thirteen: D Days in the Pacific with the US Coast Guard in World War II which has been a consistent, best-seller since. Ken now works with veterans as the president of the AHCWWII Roundtable and co-hosts a television show titled Veteran's Voice. Ken is married and has six daughters and ten grandchildren.