After graduating from Harvard cum laude in 1938, Richard Tregaskis was a journalist and a staff member of the International Service. RT was anxious to get to the heart of the action to be able to tell the heart stories of the valiant men putting their lives on the line for our country. He was sent as a correspondent to cover operations of the Pacific Fleet at the outbreak of World War II. His experiences in the South Pacific became his first book. He wrote about war in a unique way and Guadalcanal Diary earned him a permanent spot in American literature and set the genre of war correspondence. It continues to be essential reading by U.S. military personnel. Tregaskis was also in the European theatre following the Allies of the invasion of Italy. While there he was hit by German shrapnel. A piece went through his helmet and head and out the other side of his helmet. After learning how to speak and use his right hand again, he continued writing. In short time, came Invasion Diary and Stronger Than Fear. In 1947 he journeyed for two years around the world. He spent most of that time observing the Nationalist-Communist war in China, from which he barely escaped. From those amazing experiences came Seven Leagues to Paradise, Last Plane to Shanghai, and China Bomb: A Novel. RT was compelled to write about the dangers of indirect insurgencies, and why they are successful. Since WWII, we had constant emerging enemies who brought new kinds of war. Tregaskis wrote about all of them. RT felt compelled to pen X-15 Diary: The Story of America's First Space Ship, which describes the full story of the X-15 hypersonic manned rocket ship, first of its kind in the race to space. There are the many stories of the men and women who worked tirelessly in this great chapter of American history. Vietnam Diary, another seminal war correspondence book, was the first definitive eyewitness account of this new style of guerrilla combat. Tregaskis was on the frontlines for four months to share the compelling stories of courageous men fighting in these vicious battles. Due to his special skills and extensive travel in Vietnam, RT was contracted to write about one of the largest war-time construction efforts in history. His book, Building the Bases The History of Construction in Southeast Asia was an incredible undertaking which only he, with his talent and expertise, could write. Amidst writing for motion pictures and television, RT delved into fictional biographies. Warrior King: Hawaii's Kamehameha the Great was created out of his love of Hawaii after he made it his home. It is an exceptional historical story of the legendary leader of the Hawaiian Islands. RT left behind a halfway finished love story, The Secret of the Taj, about Mumtaz Mahal who inspired the creation of the Taj Mahal. It was out of his passionate love of his wife, Moana, and their assignments to India, that this manuscript came to fruition. In 1964, Richard Tregaskis was awarded the George Polk Award for reporting under hazardous conditions for the book that became Vietnam Diary. The helmet he wore in 1943 in Italy when a shell fragment pierced through it and into his skull is on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, along with a copy of Invasion Diary. Although RT had challenges with Type I diabetes, he never complained and it never stopped him from telling the important stories of the times as they were happening. During his life Richard Tregaskis clambered in and out of jeeps, fighters, bombers, trucks, and choppers while carrying his pack and notebook into the battles of nine wars. He was a special war correspondent who was able to sense the problems of the men on the front lines, while having an extraordinary ability to understand the strategy of war.
Moana Tregaskis worked alongside her husband in many conflicts around the world. She photographed, edited, and wrote many articles and books with her husband, Richard Tregaksis. She wrote for the travel section of the New York Times newspaper for ten years. She lives in Honolulu with her hanai daughter, Ja-ne de Abreu.
Ray E. Boomhower is senior editor at the Indiana Historical Society Press, where he serves as editor of the quarterly popular history magazine "Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History." Boomhower has been with the Society since 1987, beginning work for the statewide, nonprofit organization as its public relations coordinator.A native of Mishawaka, Indiana, Boomhower graduated from Indiana University in 1982 with degrees in journalism and political science. He received his master's degree in U.S. history from Indiana University, Indianapolis, in 1995. Before joining the Society staff, he worked in public relations for the Indiana State Museum and as a reporter for two Indiana daily newspapers, the "Rensselaer Republican" and the "Anderson Herald."In 1999 Boomhower received the Hoosier Historian award from the Indiana Historical Society. His book on Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Democratic presidential primary won the 2009 Best Books of Indiana competition in the nonfiction category sponsored by the Indiana Center for the Book, and his other works have been finalists in the annual Benjamin Franklin Awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association. In 2010 he was named as the winner of the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award in the regional category. Boomhower penned Richard Tregaskis: Reporting Under Fire From Guadalcanal to Vietnam which was published in 2021.
