Ten Reference Books: A Selfish Selection for Survival

Thoughts of those situations I have been in that might find me on a deserted island quickly cross my mind and of these, one stands out as a genuine possibility. I was in the army. The adjustment to living openly in a barracks with one hundred or so other young men without an inch of privacy had not been easily made. Basic training in the infantry had kept me busy, on edge, and very tired; consequently, there was no time for reading or thinking. I was not supposed to think. When the long awaited and eagerly sought first “pass” was granted, I was content to get to a quiet place off the post and just stare into space, contemplating what the future might hold and, indeed, whether or not I would survive to have a future. I am forever grateful to Lucille Hatch who gave me permission to practice on the organ at the First Methodist Church in Santa Maria, California, and this I did on many occasions. I had been in the army only four months but this was sufficient time for me to have become thoroughly indoctrinated in the ways of making war. There had been the discipline, the lectures and training movies, the drills and maneuvers, the simulated games, the mock‐ups and the bivouacs. All were planned, designed, and executed to make me a killer in combat, and, if not killed, able to survive under the most adverse and difficult conditions in a land totally foreign to my way of thinking and living. I had had all of the necessary physical examinations and the required “shots” for travel outside the United States, and with “kill or be killed” ringing in my ears, I found myself en route overseas.