Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life
    No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life
    No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life
    Audiobook12 hours

    No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life

    Written by Larry Colton

    Narrated by Robert Fass

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Their names were Bob Palmer, Gordy Cox, Tim McCoy, and Chuck Vervalin, and in 1941, when they joined the navy, they were not trying to prove their patriotism-they were just looking for a job that would provide "three hots and a cot."

    But on April 22, 1943, the war took a terrible turn for them. While on patrol deep in enemy waters, their submarine, the USS Grenadier, was torpedoed and sent crashing to the ocean floor. Listed as lost in action and given up for dead, all four had in fact miraculously escaped the ship, only to be captured by the Japanese. The four men spent the next two and a half years as POWs, enduring barbaric torture and starvation, unable to communicate with their wives and families. When they were freed, they were forced to find a new kind of resilience as they struggled to resume their lives in a world that seemed to have forgotten them. In Bob's case, it would be more than thirty years before he was reunited with the love of his life-the wife who had left him for a well-bred naval officer after he came back from the war.

    By turns panoramic and intimate, No Ordinary Joes shows us, through the lives of four "ordinary" men who endured extraordinary circumstances, the tragedy of war and its aftermath, and the restorative power of love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateOct 5, 2010
    ISBN9781400187997
    No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life

    Related to No Ordinary Joes

    Related audiobooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      All Steven Spielberg’s films – ranked!

      Oct 13, 2022

      Don’t blame Harrison Ford, who was a spry 65 when he shot this fourth Indy adventure. It’s the rest of the film that’s a mess: we get Mayans, kung-fu assassins, extraterrestrials, giant ants and that fridge, which protects the hero from an atomic bla

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Threat of Success

      Oct 19, 2021

      The Threat of Success
      1 min read

    • Article

      Shot Heard Round the World

      Nov 23, 2021

      Shot Heard Round the World
      3 min read

    • Article

      Crash Course

      Oct 1, 2019

      Crash Course
      2 min read

    • Article

      'A Woman Of No Importance' Finally Gets Her Due

      Apr 18, 2019

      Virginia Hall was an American spy who worked for Britain and the U.S. and played a key role in undermining the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Her story was rarely told — until now.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cheap Land Colorado

      Oct 28, 2022

      Cheap Land Colorado
      10 min read

    • Article

      Countdown to Retirement: 1 Year Away

      Jan 3, 2019

      You're now one year from retirement. First things first: Decide when you'll take Social Security. You can claim benefits as early as age 62, and if you retire early, you may need the money to pay health insurance and other expenses. Keep in mind, tho

      5 min read

    • Article

      Dark Waters, Starry Skies

      Mar 16, 2023

      Dark Waters, Starry Skies
      2 min read

    • Article

      Havenfall

      Feb 26, 2020

      RELEASED 3 MARCH 304 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Sara Holland Publisher Bloomsbury Adolescence is hard enough at the best of times, but throw in a murdered brother, a mother on death row and a high school full of bullies that really don’t apprecia

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Last Giraffes on Earth

      Mar 13, 2020

      The Last Giraffes on Earth
      13 min read

    • Article

      Parton Me? Dolly Didn’t Praise Trump

      Jan 30, 2018

      Q: Did Dolly Parton say, “Trump in one year is already better than 16 years of Bush, Obama put together?” A: No. A public relations consultant said that on a Breitbart radio show. FULL ANSWER Brett Decker, a consultant at a Washington D.C. pu

      2 min read

    • Article

      Lone Star Stories: The 10 Best Books About Texas

      Nov 13, 2020

      a great book about Texas should not only contain historical fact, it should give readers an impression of the Lone Star state—its scents, sights, and sensations—as well as what it feels like to be a human being of fragile flesh and blood in that imme

      3 min read

    • Article

      Heartbreak And Horror

      Jun 10, 2021

      The high number of fatalities from Titanic sent shockwaves around the world, as people tried to comprehend how this ship – of which so much had been expected – could now be lying at the bottom of the Atlantic. Four rescue boats were sent out to under

      5 min read

    • Article

      Grandad, We Hardly Knew You

      Apr 5, 2023

      Prince Harry seems to be jolly pleased with the progress of his life – bestselling memoir, lovely wife, sweet kids, dogs, chickens, Hollywood glamour and endless opportunity for psychotherapy sessions. He feels he's now so emotionally connected, and

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Impeachment of Joe Biden

      Oct 26, 2022

      The Impeachment of Joe Biden
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Magnificent 20: The Best Western Films Of All Time

      Feb 2, 2021

      The western is one of the most beloved genres of all. In recent years, it seems to have been making a comeback of sorts. Just a few years back Chloé Zhao released her standout rodeo film The Rider, while in 2016, western heads had to contend with Ant

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Lineup

      Apr 6, 2022

      QUESTION: HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE SURF CULTURE? To me, surf culture as a whole has been swallowed, digested, recycled, and upchucked into the mainstream ether many times, but if you look close enough, you can find epic pockets of real surf culture. Cert

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for No Ordinary Joes

    4.5/5

    7 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Great narrator. The book was interesting but a little ... ordinary.. but I still enjoyed this book and I do recommend it, even highly recommend. The book is, quite simply, about 4 guys' lives: growing up, entering the service during WW2, being on a naval sub (the Grenedier and others), time in Japanese prison camps, and their after-war lives. It was overwhelmingly sad to listen to these guys' prejudices without any self-recognition - I think there was only one guy that realized how much he too lived by his prejudices. The author was quite longwinded and in some places the book dragged. These guys *were* ordinary Joes - affected terribly by their experiences and living out PTSD before the time it was diagnosed, and I guess that made them extraordinary.