The Emmons Saga, A History of the USS Emmons (DD-457/DMS-22) By Edward Baxter Billingsley (438 pages, photos) Reviewer:  Dave McComb, president, Destroyer History Foundation Overall Rating: Four Stars: Highly recommended. An excellent book. Not many destroyer reunion organizations attempt to present their experiences from an historical perspective. Shipmates of the USS EMMONS (DD-457/DMS-22) began working in this direction the day she sank, however; and they have an exceptional story to tell. The EMMONS was America’s newest destroyer when it joined World War II. She operated from South America to Nova Scotia, the Arctic, North Africa and France (where, from her starboard bridge wing, combat artist Dwight Shepler captured the D-day invasion). A great favorite of her squadron, the EMMONS completed the Atlantic campaign without damage or casualties; then went to Okinawa as a fast minesweeper. There, steaming to defend her sister USS RODMAN (DMS-21), she took five kamikazes hits and was abandoned with half her crew killed or wounded. In 1981, the Emmons Association asked Rear Admiral Edward Baxter Billingsley, her third commanding officer, a retired history professor and active association member, to write her history—not to glorify her but to “show how she fitted into the overall picture of a navy and a nation at war.” In 1989, after eight years of exhaustive consultation and research—his bibliography alone runs ten pages—the association privately published his masterpiece. Then in 2001, divers discovered the EMMONS’ wreck, creating an epilogue for the book, which the Emmons Association has now republished. “The Emmons Saga” offers new readers and veterans alike a comprehensive view of the World War II destroyer experience. With easy-to-understand flow, it details everything from her construction at Bath, Maine to her changing armament, squadron organization, operations, Navy Unit Commendation and observations from today’s “Emmons Family.” In so doing, it translates the tone of the 1940s into modern terms, with shipmates’ affection and loyalty “shining through the events, great and trivial, which are recorded here.” For destroyer history as only a commanding officer and crew could present it with the benefit of 60 years’ perspective, “The Emmons Saga” is eloquent, insightful and an absorbing example of the best in destroyer literature. For more, visit the EMMONS home page at http://www.destroyerhistory.org/benson-gleavesclass/ussemmons/.   The Emmons Saga, A History of the USS Emmons (DD-457/DMS-22) By Edward Baxter Billingsley (438 pages, photos) Reviewer:  Bernie Ditter Overall Rating: Three Stars: Recommended. A solid effort. In 1982, following eight years of prodigious research, The Emmons Saga was first published by the Emmons Association. The author was the third and penultimate commanding officer of the Emmons. As one will learn in reading this book, the Emmons was a victim of the World War II version of suicide bombers; the kamikazes, the kikusui or "floating Chrysanthemums". In February of 2001 divers located the Emmons at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where she had been sunk by friendly fire to avoid her recovery by the Japanese. The Emmons had been immobilized by an overwhelming attack by fifty to seventy-five planes on her and her sister ship the Rodman while they were acting in support of the landings at Okinawa. The discovery of the ship generated a renewed interest in the earlier published book and it is again in print having been revised and updated. The book chronicles the almost day by day life of the Emmons from her commissioning in Bath two days before Pearl Harbor to her demise on April 7, 1945. In between those dates she steamed over 300,000 miles in the service of her country and during that time almost 700 men called her home. While many sailors will be intrigued with the diary like approach to telling her story and enjoy the routine and sometimes boredom of the constant exercises and calls to general quarters others will appreciate the research into the German mindset of the progress of the war and the geopolitical view of our South American neighbors. The true essence of the warriors on the Emmons is shown in the chapter telling of her last battle at Okinawa. The personal accounts of the last battle, recorded by each survivor as they recovered on evacuation ships, bring to life the horrendous experience that they lived through. This book is one that does not require a reading from front to back in one sitting (actually 438 pages makes that a challenge) but, when you get to last battle at Okinawa plan to read it all for this is the heart of this book. It is not the tragedy that inspires but how each person on board responded to their duties and beyond.