PT Boat 81 describes the World War II Navy Veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Milt Rackham, chronicles the years he spent peering down the sights of a PT boat's big guns during World War II. These stories, along with others of ground action he experienced, offer a unique glimpse into a hell that those who have never known combat can scarcely imagine; moments when life and death collide, separated only by capricious fate, the trajectory of a bullet, a shard of shrapnel.
These are not easy stories to tell. It's only now, more than three-quarters of a century later, that Rackham can bring himself to talk about them at all.
While working on the project, his co-author Myrl Thompson discovered that Rackham had applied for VA benefits several times beginning in 1972, and been repeatedly denied due to a "lack of information". He had stopped trying when he discovered that his military records were lost in a fire at the National Personnel Record Center in St. Louis MO in 1973.
As a result of writing this book, Milt found the courage to make one last request and finally ended up receiving a partial monthly benefit at the age of 86.
Rackham's riveting book is a rare, open, sometimes disturbing chronicle of terror and personal triumph. It provides us with poignant insight into the ongoing impact of war on our veterans and their families.
