90 Day Wonder: Darkness Remembered

Leon Cooper and Don Tait

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

Leon Cooper was a young US Navy officer who spent three years in the Pacific during WWII. Like others in the “Greatest Generation,” he was prepared to do his duty in the defence of his country, but his stand-up nature brought him into conflict with Captain Boda, the commanding officer of the ship on which he served. Captain Boda was a “Mustang,” an enlisted man of many years of service who received a “Battlefield” commission.

Boda bore a deep resentment toward “gentlemen” officers like Cooper who were commissioned after only 90 days’ training. Boda’s sociopathic behaviour, including his reckless commands resulted in the deaths of a number of Cooper’s shipmates. This heightened the conflict between the two men. Cooper’s penchant to stand firm angered the Captain to the extent that he plotted to have Cooper killed during the course of the six invasions of Japanese-held islands in which Cooper was a major participant. Cooper tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Navy High Command to take action against Boda, but wound up getting himself in a worse position with the Captain.

After his discharge from the service Cooper was still beset with a burning need to wreak vengeance upon the murderous Boda, even resorting to an abortive attempt to kill Boda - now an Admiral aboard the Presidential yacht, the Potomac. When Cooper finally stumbled upon the means to give Boda his just deserts, he was thwarted by a death-bed promise to his wife to leave vengeance to the Lord. But Cooper found peace with himself after he found a way to keep his promise and even the score with Boda.

Review by Molly Martin (310505) Rating (8/10)

Review by Molly Martin
Rating 8/10
The narrative opens with writer Cooper and his wife Alberta enjoying a trip to Washington DC when Cooper ‘flips out’ and certain the occupant of a passing vehicle is old nemesis Captain Boda, tries to open a car door. The account continues with an ‘Islands of Valor’ tour group visit to the Solomons, New Guinea, Marshall and Gilbert Islands where Cooper contemplates left behind armaments. President’s economists had said country would be thrown into depression if war supplies were returned to states at end of WWII. Cooper visits sites where he had seen action during WWII. Cooper suffers recurring problems due to Post Traumatic Stress. Cooper was an engineering student at Illinois, and had interviewed in Washington for job with the government when Pearl Harbour was attacked.

The 90-day transformation from civilian engineering candidate to one of eighteen midshipmen in Columbia University’s Midshipman’s School soon begins. And in a short time Ensign Cooper is sent to Little Creek, Virginia Amphibious Training Base to be trained to land on enemy-held beaches. When he met with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lt. Commander, to discuss a transfer to another unit, Cooper learned his new assignment would be for ‘the Big One’, the invasion of German-held beaches in Europe.

With his training completed Cooper boards the U.S.S. Harry Lee where he meets Capt. Boda. Boda, who received a battlefield commission, is less than enthralled with the 90-day wonders being cranked out by the military. During the following months Cooper learns more than he wants about Captain’s Mast, takes part in six invasions including ‘Bloody Tarawa’, helps ferry the wounded to a waiting hospital ship, steps on Boda’s non musical toes, and is assigned to stand extra watch. He meets the Captain’s son and receives even more duty. Despite inclement weather Boda orders practice landings leading to predictable disaster and death. The anecdote continues with a Christmas aboard the Lee, Boda holding up orders, and Cooper gets in hot water again. The war ends and life goes on. Cooper marries, has a family and continues to suffer from what was then labelled as ‘shell shock.’ Finally Cooper loses Alberta to ovarian cancer and writes a letter to the now Rear Admiral Boda.

Writers Cooper and Tait have produced an enthralling account of a young mid American who is caught up in the nationwide trepidation following the attack upon Pearl Harbour during WWII. 90 Day Wonder: Darkness Remembered is a tension filled account recounting the four years of abuse Cooper endured at the hands of an ego maniac captain aboard the U.S.S. Harry Lee. The narrative flips smoothly from the present to the past and back again. Accounts of physical combat and mental battles keep the reader turning the pages in this fast paced work. The insanity of Boda’s heedless commands leading to deaths of Cooper’s shipmates is depicted in stark realism. The antagonism present between Cooper who proceeds from a sense of equity and Boda from one of absolute authority is palpable. The reader comes to understand that during wartime the military may be compelled to install misfit or just plain madmen in charge of men.

90-Day Wonder: Darkness Remembered is a riveting tale recounting abuse of power, lunacy, carnage, retaliation, devotion and atonement. Central to the tale is the fact that sometimes malignant martinet tyrants are placed in command of men, that this miscalculation often leads to needless deaths and long-term, post-war psychological problems for the surviving subordinates is something the military has long denied and ignored.

Good book for the history buff and those who enjoy reading ‘war’ stories. Not for everyone, racial epithets and expletives are used.

I am a Vietnam veteran’s wife who found the read compelling, happy to recommend.
Molly Martin (31st May 2005)