Ninety-Day Wonder: Flight To Guerrilla War Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an interesting eyewitness account of wartime China. This book is well-written and vividly portrays the author's experience with Naval training in Chicago, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, and ultimately his experience "behind the lines" with the US Navy in China.
Horton begins by briefly describing his experience of growing up in the Midwest, then of joining the Navy in 1940. Due to the rapid onset of WWII, the US Navy needed officers ...and fast. Therefore, instead of having all cadets spend 4 years at the Naval Academy, the Navy started a 90-day accelerated officer-training program in Chicago (hence the nickname applied to the graduating Midshipmen).
This is a well-written and engaging book, though it is also at times a bit dark and cynical. Horton describes his experiences vividly, but also spends a fair bit of time criticizing his American and Chinese superiors. His main criticism is that his superiors, for various reasons, repeatedly hindered his efforts to attack the Japanese. Although his complaints at times grow tiresome, his enthusiasm, patriotism, and resourcefulness cannot be questioned and his observations of wartime China and of the Chinese are thought-provoking. All in all, I found this book to be very informative, descriptive, and insightful.
Incidentally, my father followed in Horton's footsteps a few years later. Also a 90-Day Wonder, he was likewise sent to China and fought behind the lines, training Chinese guerillas with the 3,600-man Naval Group China, known as SACO (the Sino-American Cooperative Organization). My father shared many of Horton's opinions and experiences in this little-known theatre of war, including afterwards a lifelong fascination with China.
Other interesting books about this theatre include Mishler's "Sampan Sailor" (an engaging and uplifting, though at times anecdotal account of a sailor's experience in Southeastern China during WWII), and the definitive book, "A Different Kind of War" by Admiral Milton Miles, who led Naval Group China during WWII. Miles' fascinating and exceptionally-written book is out-of-print, unfortunately, but is a "must-read" for anyone interested in wartime China.

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In his four years of navy service during WWII, Ensign John Horton's military career ranged from communications in Manila to commander of a guerrilla training camp for Chinese soldiers. He also engaged with the Chinese in acts of sabotage, blowing up railroads and bridges in Japanese-occupied areas.Horton experienced a fascinating yet little-known aect of the war. With eyewitness accounts from both chinese and U.S. soldiers , he provides a rare and riveting glimpse of a china filled with bravery and foreboding, a country fighting a vicious enemy while teetering on the brink of civil war.

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