'That Wasn't Bravery . . .'
By Kathleen Broome Williams
'. . . Hell, I was scared to death,' is what Private First Class William Crane said about his heroic deed one day in 1944 on Saipan. Indeed, he was a hero in every sense of the word, but he never got his due—until now.
Bill Crane was 17 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He tried to join the Marine Corps the next day, but his father told him to wait. His older brother had joined the Army Air Corps that day, and his father wanted to be sure his second son was not just getting carried along; he should make his own decision. On 5 December 1942, his 18th birthday, Crane did just that. 1
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Dr. Williams teaches at the Bronx Community College, City University of New York. She is the author of the upcoming book, Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and U.S. Navy in World War II (2001) and Secret Weapon: U.S. High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Battle of the Atlantic (1996), both published by the Naval Institute Press. She holds a Ph.D. in military history from the City University of New York.
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