Lieutenant Commander Jack Sherertz
Jack Sherertz graduated Georgia Tech in May 1940 and joined the Navy. He became a 90-day Wonder and trained on the USS Arkansas and the USS Illinois. As a newly minted Ensign he was ordered to Pearl Harbor to become a deck officer on the USS Nevada until the Japanese sank it. Reassigned to PT boat Squadron One he went to Midway Island where he was part of the Battle of Midway. Finally, he was transferred to PT Squadron 34 as Executive Officer and participated in D-Day where Squadron 34 escorted minesweepers and guarded the western flank of the invasion force. Then as Commanding Officer of Squadron 34 he was ordered to contain the Germans on Guernsey and Jersey Islands resulting in his final conflict, a broadside battle with a German minesweeper.
During the course of the war he lost six fellow Ensigns at Pearl Harbor, all close friends, and fifty other men on the USS Nevada, organized the funeral of eleven marine pilots on Midway Island, and ordered sixteen men to their death off the coast of Jersey Island. He had at least 83 good reasons why he never talked about the war, but finally at the age of 91, he decided to tell his story and why he received a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, British DSC, and in 2011, the French Legion of Honor Medal.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Sherertz has been a professor of medicine, college professor, practicing physician, and researcher. Pertinent to this book he was a son and committed recorder of his father’s World War II experience. His research experience came in handy filling in the few gaps in his father’s story and confirming what was said in every way possible. But mostly, as in the oral traditions of old, he listened carefully and wrote down the story for future generations.
This website is intended to be a companion to the book by the same name, "A Hero Among Millions".
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