The Indestructible Man: The Incredible True Story of the Legendary Sailor the Japanese Couldn't Kill

by Don Keith, David Rocco

Overview

Dixie Kiefer’s reputation for durability began at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he broke an ankle and shattered a kneecap while playing football. After anti-submarine duty in World War I, he became a pioneer of naval aviation and had an elbow shattered by a plane that buzzed him as a joke. Kiefer’s first World War II assignment was executive officer of the carrier Yorktown. He earned the Distinguished Service Medal at the Coral Sea and the Navy Cross at Midway, where—as his ship was sinking—he suffered severe burns to his hands and a compound fracture of his foot. After recuperating, Kiefer took command of the Ticonderoga. In January 1945, Japanese kamikazes struck the carrier, killing and wounding hundreds. Kiefer broke his arm and was struck by more than sixty pieces of shrapnel—but remained on the bridge for twelve hours, earning the Silver Star. Victim of ten wounds in two wars, veteran of some of the U.S. Navy’s most celebrated carriers and battles, a naval aviation pioneer, Dixie Kiefer died in a stateside plane crash two months after the war ended.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811739641
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/01/2021
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,117,813
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Don Keith is a journalist with decades of experience across various media. As a broadcast journalist, he won awards from the Associated Press and UPI for news writing and reporting, received the first Hector Award from Troy University for innovation in broadcast journalism, and was twice named Billboard’s radio personality of the year for his work in Birmingham and Nashville. As a print journalist, his writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, and American Legion. He is author or co-author of thirty books, both fiction and nonfiction, including Hunter Killer, the basis of a 2018 movie starring Gary Oldman and Gerard Butler. He lives outside Birmingham, Alabama.



David Rocco retired from the New York Housing Authority after a career of twenty years. Since then, he has volunteered for cultural and environmental initiatives in the Hudson Valley and New York City area, including a major role in redeveloping the “Walkway over the Hudson” project and extensive work at Mount Beacon. He lives in Yorktown, New York.

Table of Contents

From the Authors v

Interlude vii

Prologue xi

Chapter 1 A Boy Named Dixie 1

Chapter 2 War and Peace and War 9

Chapter 3 Learning and Leading 19

Chapter 4 Coral Sea 35

Chapter 5 Tactical and Strategic 45

Chapter 6 "I'll Show You How to Handle This Ship!" 57

Chapter 7 Turnaround 65

Chapter 8 Dixie's Gallant Swim 73

Chapter 9 Shore Duty, Movie Acting, and First Command 91

Chapter 10 "Divine Wind" 99

Chapter 11 Halsey's Typhoons 109

Chapter 12 Out of the Sun 115

Chapter 13 General Quarters 127

Chapter 14 The Second Kamikaze 145

Chapter 15 Long, Slow Trip to Ulithi 157

Chapter 16 Quonset 167

Chapter 17 "Over the Northerly Portion of the City of Beacon" 175

Chapter 18 Quiet Sunday 183

Chapter 19 Arlington, Sec 3, Site 4072-C 191

Epilogue 199

Authors'Notes and Acknowledgments 201

Index 215

About the Authors 221