This document contains offensive language. It is important for Ingram Library’s Special Collections to acknowledge that racism and bigotry, including terms considered derogatory and terms that were used historically, are present in this collection. Encountering racist or derogatory content can be difficult and painful. The University of West Georgia offers counseling and other support services for current students, faculty, and staff.

Autobiography includes Edwards, Merchant, and Hoskin family geneaologies; Methodist church; growing up on farm in Colorado; schooling; description of life as a child; Depression; U.S. Navy; U.S. Naval Training Station in San Diego; pay and leave; family and community intolerance for people of Catholic faith; Pearl Harbor; entering Pearl Harbor on board the USS Saratoga after attack on on December 9, 1941; conditions of life in the Navy; Naval Academy graduates viewing themselves as superior to enlisted men; discussion of U.S. diplomatic relations with Japan and size of Pacific Fleet; role of Naval Intelligence; discrimination and investigation of homosexual activity by U.S. Naval Intelligence.