He is the retired Emeritus Professor of Communication at the University of Michigan, where he also served for ten years as a department chairman. He spent a year in England as a Fulbright scholar, and he has authored or co-authored five books about television and radio.
Civilian in an Ill-fitting Uniform: A Memoir of World War II
by Edgar E. Willis
“Civilian in an Ill-fitting Uniform” Introduction
From Edgar E. Willis:
This memoir of World War II is unique. Instead of proceeding chronologically, it focuses on how a civilian with no military experience, converted overnight into a naval officer, reacted to the strange new world of the navy. To my surprise I found out, for example, that I would have to pay for my meals out of the salary the navy paid me. I also discuss somewhat weightier subjects such as the place of African-Americans in the World War II navy, the extreme steps the navy took to keep officers and enlisted men apart and the measures it adopted to control sexual activity. I also expose two utterly different ways in which two captains of the battle cruiser “Alaska”, on which I served as its fighter director, carried out their command responsibilities. The objective of the first captain seemed to be to make the life of the men he commanded as difficult and burdensome as he could, the objective of the second to make their life as easy and comfortable as possible. In the background of all this is the prospect and actuality of furious combat. The “Alaska” received battle stars for participating in the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. During the battles, the skies were filled with Japanese suicide bombers intent on sinking American ships. They succeeded in sending more than 300 of them to the bottom of the Pacific. The “Alaska” was just a few hundred yards from the carrier “Franklin” when it was hit. The resulting explosions killed almost 800 young Americans. Near the end of the war, the “Alaska” was anchored next to the battleship “Pennsylvania” when it was struck by an aerial torpedo, causing the loss of more young lives. After the peace treaty was signed, the men of the “Alaska” had a new kind of experience when the ship was sent to Tsingtao, China, to accept the surrender of a Japanese army.
Rave Reviews for “Civilian in an Ill-fitting Uniform”
This book provides a rare first hand account of a crucial time in American history, the end of the war in the Pacific in WWII. The book is compelling and insightful, and describes the experiences of a young PhD who is suddenly exposed during wartime to the rigors, discipline and dangers of military life. The book is replete with anecdotes which are riveting and sometimes quite touching and humorous. Reading the book is much like reading a book by the eminent American historian David McCullough, in that the accounts of events are as if you were actually there.
William C. Orr, Ph.D., President and CEO, Lynn Health Science Institute and Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
In Civilian in an Ill-Fitting Uniform Edgar Willis reminds us why the greatest generation has earned our respect and gratitude. More than just a vividly told memoir of his service in the Navy during World War II, it is a narrative of the entire war-time experience. From the fortuitous twists of fate that so influenced his path to his faithful portrayal of life aboard the /USS Alaska/, Willis weaves together a wonderful story. But this memoir also chronicles a consummate family man whose most crushing disappointment was not returning home to his wife and kids immediately after the war ended. In telling us how he came to serve and the sacrifices he made along the way, Willis delivers an engrossing account of a life well-lived.
Major Zachary Miller, U.S. Army. Miller is a veteran of the Iraq War, Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart recipient, and graduate of Harvard and West Point.
Through stories and experiences that are both intimate and (given the conditions in a Navy ship), at times shockingly public, Dr. Willis spins tales of grim reality and utter joy with equal skill and interest.
Rev. Daniel W. Bellavia Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Greater Toledo, Ohio
