First Published by Wheatmark in 2006, “Touching the Ancient One” was independently republished in 2022 through Amazon. It retains all the original content with a new introduction and an addendum that updates information about several of the story participants. There is also a Kindle edition.
Touching the Ancient One–A True Story of Tragedy and Reunion, is my story of a 1954 Air Force C-47 crash on Kesugi Ridge in South-Central Alaska that took the lives of ten military service members; I was one of six survivors. It’s also the story of a reunion forty-two years later that brought together crash survivors, their families, families of the victims, and civilian and Air Force personnel from that time. There followed other reunions, the erection of plaques honoring the men who perished, a high military honor for rescuer Cliff Hudson, and a 1998 return to the mountain crash site. The first edition is out of print but is sometimes available on Amazon.
Awarded the 2007 Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) Silver Medal in the Memoirs/Biography category.
released October 15, 2020
Independent Review: “Tri-State Heroes of ‘45: Together with A Year in the Life of a West Virginia Farm Family, resurrects selected local, national, and world events of 1945, but hangs on a framework of diary entries of Pratt's mother, who was thirty-seven that year, while Pratt himself was only twelve. The daily life on their little farm in Salt Rock, West Virginia presents a unique mosaic that tells an unforgettable tale of faith, family, and hope on the home front. Pratt honors military service members of the Tri-State area of West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky with ‘mini-stories’ from Huntington, West Virginia newspapers of that year.”
There are over 8,000 personal names in the index.
Tri-State Heroes of ’45 was awarded a 2021 Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) Silver Medal in the Memoirs/Biography category.
This is the second of my books to receive that honor.
Read the Introduction to Tri-State Heroes of ’45
Want to see if your friend or relative is mentioned?
See the index of People
federal census books for the West Virginia counties of Cabell and Wayne
FICTION.
Love and hate battle for control between two Adirondack families: One family enjoys wealth; the other struggles for survival. Obie, a child of the Depression, loves two sisters: Cassie is his best friend and confidant; Laura is the one he’s determined to marry. Abigail, the girls’ mother, will do anything to prevent that. Suffering bitter betrayal, Obie is cast into a world ravaged by war. This story plays out over the diverse areas of the New York Adirondacks, the boot of Italy, and the Bay Area of California. Above all, it’s a story about a young man’s loss of faith and his convoluted journey to reclaim it.
On sale now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
There is also a kindle edition
BLACKBERRY HILLPublished may 31, 2023
