The Luck of the Draw: The Memoir of a World War II Submariner: From Savo Island to the Silent Service for $15.99

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Luck of the Draw by Capt. Kenneth Ruiz

An Old Sailor Speaks

I am a retired naval officer who served in destroyers and carriers throughout my career, during which I was under direct fire in three wars. My ship was shot up by the Japanese, my plane shot down by the Chinese and my flagship shot at by the North Vietnamese. I have a lot of vivid memories from those days of waiting and warring. I also like good war stories and I have read a lot of them. I have enjoyed only a limited few because most are usually pretty unrealistic. Those readers who have under fire in combat can usually tell whether an author has ever been in a firefight. Ken Ruiz has not only been under fire, he has generally been where the action is.
Ensign Ken Ruiz had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in June 1942. After two weeks of leave, he reported to his first duty station, the USS Vincennes. This was a modern, well maintained, 8 inch gunned heavy cruiser with an experienced crew. In the summer of 1942 the Americans and their allies were losing the war everywhere. In the opening pages of Luck of the Draw, Ruiz describes the battle of Savo Island and the shocking defeat of the U.S. Navy's cruiser and destroyer task force protecting the amphibious landings on Guadalcanal. In this night action, a Japanese force of cruisers and destroyers sank four of our cruisers without a loss of any of their own. Ruiz recounts in the most graphic detail the total destruction of the Vincennes. His account is the best of the many I have read of that battle. The description of the methodical and agonizing dismembering of the Vincennes' at the hands of the Japanese, is a classic.
Rescued from the treacherous waters of "Iron Bottom Bay" after his ship went down, Ruiz was sent immediately to augment the crew of a diesel submarine without the normal procedure of survivor's leave and the prescribed six months of training in the Submarine School in New London, Connecticut. He had volunteered to go directly to a deploying fleet submarine in response to an emotional personal appeal by Admiral Nimitz: "We need officers like you in our submarine fleet and we need them now. Our submarines are desperately short handed". Ruiz stayed in subs for the rest of the war, and The Luck of the Draw tells his story.

Ruiz has the ability to write in a way that makes you feel that you are there. I have never served in submarines in combat but I have many contemporaries who did, and several of my friends have written books about their wartime submarine experience. They cannot match Ruiz in the reality of the accounts of his submarine war patrols in Luck of the Draw. He makes them come alive. I could swear I smelled the diesel oil and felt the damp heat of the engine room. There are no cardboard heroes such as we encounter in so many war stories. Ruiz' people are normal and alive, just as prone to error as they are capable of a satisfactory job. They are like the people you and I know.

From Ruiz we learn a lot about submarines - including their vulnerability to age, wear and the shock of battle. He shows us the same effects on his shipmates, reacting under the unrelenting tension of the silent service. This is a wonderful book. I read it through the first time without stopping. Now I keep a copy on my bedside table to pick up and read a chapter at random whenever I need that boost to my morale and the vicarious satisfaction that comes with refreshing my admiration of the courage and sacrifice of those otherwise average guys in dirty dungarees and un-pressed khakis mottled with the dark stains of their sweat, who fight this country's wars at sea.
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"The Luck of the Draw: The Memoir of a World War II Submariner: From Savo Island to the Silent Service" Overview

A coin flip likely saved the life of Kenneth C. Ruiz. It was August 1942 and he was fresh out of the U.S. Naval Academy. He and a classmate flipped a coin to see who would stand watch on the bridge of their heavy cruiser, the USS Vincennes, off Savo Island as the Marines were landing on Guadalcanal. Ruiz was on the bridge when the ship took a direct hit and sank. He ended up in the Pacific without a life jacket, but his classmate and the entire radio room crew perished in the attack. "The luck of the draw" is a recurring theme in this powerful memoir. Following the demise of the Vincennes, Ruiz volunteered to serve on submarines for the balance of the war and had numerous harrowing experiences. He spent most of his time on the USS Pollack, which was sub-standard in terms of technology, but was still deadly and made a significant impact on Japanese shipping in the far reaches of the Pacific. A worthy addition to the litany of WWII books on submariners, The Luck of the Draw is filled with heartbreaking stories of how the smallest decisions made the difference between life and death for soldiers and sailors in the war.

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