Captain Noon is in his last year at college. He sleeps till noon, he dreams of being a pilot. Time and opportunities slip away in procrastination. The narrator, his father, recalls his own fathers instructions, play for keeps, and the head of his high school hoe-out your row. Get on with it. Finish what you do. A distant cousin Nora put off life and never got around to it. A thorn in the side of members of the family, Nora lives alone and has a stroke. She is the family historian collecting clippings about members of the family in her Death Bible. The comfortable Berkeley liberals, a man in an electric wheelchair takes a pitch in the rain, a pitcher for the Giants, neighbors, Berkeleys contraband dog hair, and the fancy of the Triple Z Squadron, the Triple Z Airlines in peacetime, fill out the story. Thomas De Quincey says: If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think of robbing, and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

Includes numerous maps and illustrations. This monograph provides first-hand accounts of Destroyer Squadron 18 during this critical battle upon which so much of the success of our campaign in Europe would depend. Their experience at Omaha Beach can be looked upon as typical of most U.S. warships engaged at Normandy. On the other hand, from the author’s research it appears evident that this destroyer squadron, with their British counterparts, may have had a more pivotal influence on the breakout from the beachhead and the success of the subsequent campaign than was heretofore realized. Its contributions certainly provide a basis for discussion among veterans and research by historians, as well as a solid, professional account of naval action in support of the Normandy landings.