Surviving two of the bloodiest naval battles in history - at Okinawa and Iwo Jima, in 1945 - made A. Robert Smith feel that a Higher Power was responsible for transferring him off of a ship destined for death and destruction from an enemy kamikaze. Why, he wondered, was he saved from that terrible attack on the USS Sandoval and allowed to live a long, purpose-filled life? His memoir, God Gave Me a Mulligan, is the story for how these events played in wartime and how his purpose-driven life evolved. Smith came home from World War II to become a newspaper correspondent, covering Congress and seven presidents - Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter ¬- and the history-making admittance for Alaska and Hawaii into the Union, leading ultimately to the election of Barack Obama. His life was a series of purposeful adventures for a lad whose talents were less extraordinary than his opportunities. He came out of a small Pennsylvania town, fought for our country, married exceptionally good women, raised four gifted children, published several books, and later founded a spiritual magazine. As a journalist he got to look many a potentate in the eye, and even unnerve a few. Nonetheless, shaking the hands of Queen Elizabeth and a few U.S. presidents never failed to stir him. As Dizzy Dean, the St. Louis Cardinal's pitcher, declared: "If ya done it, it ain't braggin." He "done it" all right. In his "last hurrah" event at the Capitol, a senator asked what he had learned from covering Congress for 27 years. "Everything is negotiable!" he said. Negotiation is how two parties can reach a settlement that they can support. It is the pathway of peace in a divided world. It is the way to solve differences between Republicans and Democrats, between husbands and wives, and children and parents. Negotiation is the essential tool to lead us to a more peaceful world. "That is the truth I discovered, sitting in the Capitol press galley all those years," declared Smith, "something that will serve all people as we learn to live together peaceably." God Gave Me a Mulligan can be ordered from Amazon.com.
About the Author: A. Robert Smith, drafted into the Navy by President Roosevelt during World War II, served as a radio tech aboard the USS Hocking in the war in the Pacific. He saw the Stars and Stripes go up over Mt. Suribachi after the Hocking delivered the invading 5th Marines division to the beaches of Iwo Jima. He ducks Japanese kamikazes in the battle for Okinawa, where 4,900 American sailors died, the heaviest naval loss in the war. He came home to York, Pennsylvania, accompanied by a war bride he met in California, and set out to find out why God gave him a mulligan by sparing his life when so many other servicemen did make it home. He became a newspaper reporter for papers in the Northwest and Alaska, and an editorial writer for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, VA. He also covered Congress and seven presidents - Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. He covered the history-making admission of Alaska and Hawaii into the Union, which opened the door to the election of Barack Obama as president. Smith is the author or co-author for nine other books, including The Tiger In the Senate and No Soul Left Behind: The Words and Wisdom of Edgar Cayce. His e-mail address is abob@cox.net, in Virginia Beach, VA