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Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile reading...Shared Memories
Review: An interesting rendition of an enlisted Navy diver's efforts to aid the war effort by helping to raise sunken battleships after December 7, 1941 in Pearl Habor, HI. The editors at Presidio (if there were any) need to be given a kick in the backside for their lack of effort on this text. Despite the editors' lack of attention, the author does an excellent job of relating an enlisted man's view of how the War looked, and explains how he coped with both the horrors of his work in attempting to help raise the sunken hulks of Battleship Row, make jury-rigged repairs off Guadacanal, and his successes and failures while "blowing off steam" while on Liberty. Maybe there's a bit too much about the liberty antics, but I'm sure that the author's successes in these efforts remain as important memories that he wished to share with readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent view of a working enlisted diver.
Review: As a military diver I could easily identify with the techniques and characters in the book. While the techniques have been updated, the people haven't really changed. This book shows what life was/is like for a diver. Divers often work in extremely nasty environments with little to no visibility. Add to this the psychological effects of being among different things that you must identify by feel and you get a small glimpse of what it is like. This type of diving is completely different from civilian SCUBA and this illustrates the type of mentality required. This book will show you what it is like to really be a working diver. All present and former divers owe a tremendous debt to gentlemen like Mr Raymer. They were truly pioneers whose accomplishments often went unreported and unrecognized.
Rating:
Summary: Important historical account of diving safety development.
Review: As a retired US Navy Diver, I enjoyed Commander Raymer's account of how various salvage and diving safety techniques were developed during the salvage of the battleships at Pearl Harbor. Many of the procedures that these Bubbleheads thought up in their off hours became standards taught to deepsea divers thirty years later. This story of a great diving adventure is a must read for all divers whether they be military, commercial, or recreational.
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Summary: A young man awakens to the horror of war
Review: Coping with disaster through the eyes of a young Navy diver and team leader as he learns the true horrors of war that have fallen upon his country; and how he and his buddies managed to deal with floating corpses, hideous accidents, and impossible working conditions to improvise solutions and handle the stress at the same time. The book gives a glimpse into military life as it was in the beginning of WW II, a far different life than it is today; when Oahu, Hawaii was not a vacation paradise crowded with tourists, but the lonely "rock" of sixty years ago, another far flung outpost in the Pacific in the war against Japan. The stories of liberty, while sometimes coarse in nature, will give the non-military reader an inkling of what goes through young men's minds when they are in a war zone and prompts humorous recollections for veterans of all eras. The book is written with much humanity and conveys to the reader not only the actions of the participants but their emotional states as well. Sometimes seemingly short on details and sometimes a collection of incidents rather than a narrative history, the book still offers an illuminating view of an otherwise unknown chapter in the Pacific war. Authored by an aging veteran, the poignancy of the reminiscences published shortly before his death cannot be missed.
Rating:
Summary: HEROIC AND HEARTBREAKING
Review: Excellent reading by one of our country's true Heroes. The passage where the author finds a sailor pinned inside the hull of a ship, and what happens subsequently, caused me to put the book down and weep. Remarkable and touching chronicle of innocent young men catapulted into the middle of the worst of human obscenities...War.
Rating:
Summary: A females take on the other side of the war effort..
Review: I have limited knowledge about the attack on Pearl Harbor from history books and documentaries, and wanted a new point of view to read to prepare myself for the epic movie "Pearl Harbor" coming out Memorial Day 2001. Needless to say, I could not put the book down. The book was written so easily for a layperson unfamiliar with ship repair, salvage efforts and the work the men on the back line, so to speak, to understand the techniques and personal fear and strength that these divers endured. Shocking visuals, heart break of death, pride in work, commitment to the job, danger and opportunity for technique advancement all are described so well by the author.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Preservation of History
Review: In "Descent into Darkness", Raymer takes the reader into the waters of Pearl Hrbor just after the Japanese attack of December, 7, 1941. His view of the salvage operation, the largest of it's kind, is interesting and sheds light on issues like, "why were so many bodies left in the Arizona", "how did the ships get righted", etc. Raymer does a good job with this, his only book. He does lose the last star from me becuase I was looking for more info on the salvage, more on the sights and smells, everything. Instead Raymer spends a lot of time reviewing his nights of liberty in Oahu........I guess I can't blame the guy if I had to choose.
Rating:
Summary: great guy book
Review: this book was well worth the time and effort. i enjoyed the stories he had of him and his friends off duty adventures. it took me back to my own group of friends and the adventures we had as younger adults. i was really interested in his job and was quite satisfied by the story he told. i would have liked a more in depth look at the equipment that a diver uses and some of his personal stories he could have left personal. that is the only thing keeping this book from being a 5 star book.
Rating:
Summary: History written by a eyewitness
Review: This really is a first-rate account of a process that has largely been ignored by writers and historians. I think it's a "given" that diving around sunken, fully armed and fueled battleships would be dangerous, but until I read this book I didn't realize just how MANY different hazards there were. For example, who would have known that it's dangerous to enter a previously-sealed but empty compartment that contains rust? (the formation of iron oxide [rust] depletes oxygen in the space) The reader gets a firsthand account of the daily lives of salvage divers, and how frequently solutions to problems were devised on the spot. Rather unexpectedly, readers also get a firsthand description of what life was like "on the ground" during the Guadalcanal campaign. Anyone wanting to know more about the Pearl Harbor attack really should read this book. Many people tend to think of the battle as being over when the last Japanese plane returned to its carrier; in truth, the battle had just BEGUN.
Rating:
Summary: History written by a eyewitness
Review: This really is a first-rate account of a process that has largely been ignored by writers and historians. I think it's a "given" that diving around sunken, fully armed and fueled battleships would be dangerous, but until I read this book I didn't realize just how MANY different hazards there were. For example, who would have known that it's dangerous to enter a previously-sealed but empty compartment that contains rust? (the formation of iron oxide [rust] depletes oxygen in the space) The reader gets a firsthand account of the daily lives of salvage divers, and how frequently solutions to problems were devised on the spot. Rather unexpectedly, readers also get a firsthand description of what life was like "on the ground" during the Guadalcanal campaign. Anyone wanting to know more about the Pearl Harbor attack really should read this book. Many people tend to think of the battle as being over when the last Japanese plane returned to its carrier; in truth, the battle had just BEGUN.
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