Chasing the Wind

Ernie Coleman was 93 years old when, virtually every Monday morning through the summer of 2010, he sat down with a writer to tell the story of his nearly century-long life. A child of The Great Depression. A graduate of The Greatest Generation, as we call it now. A carpenter, Ernie has built things, and rebuilt his life repeatedly, struggling through divorce and the death of two wives. With four marriages came one adopted child and seven stepchildren. He has adapted to change. He is a survivor.Ernie is also a sailor, and one who loved to dance. On Lake Ontario, he was winning races well into his 90s. His boats weren't always the naturally swiftest. Ernie, however, knew all of the tricks that could ease his craft over the finish line first, especially on days when the wind was elusive.You'll learn that 33,000 years ago, the glacial ice over Ernie's house in Summerville was two miles deep. You'll learn some handy sailing strategies, like watching for the appearance of "cat's paws" on the lake surface. You'll read about heroin, the zoot suit riots, infidelity, love, death, how you can make a muffler out of a 5-inch artillery shell for a 1928 Dodge Victory Six. And you'll read that - if he's curious enough - a man can crawl through the hollow tubes of Hawaiian volcanoes left behind by receding lava flows.But most importantly, you'll learn the story that Ernie couldn't bring himself to tell, even some 70 years later. The 20-minute Battle of Savo Island, in the midst of the Guadalcanal Campaign, was the worst open-sea defeat in the history of the United States Navy. Three American cruisers were sent to Iron Bottom Sound that night, including Ernie's ship, USS Vincennes. In his nightmares, he can still hear his fellow sailors screaming in the burning water of the South Pacific. More than 1,000 American and Australian navy men, including more than 300 of Ernie's fellow crewmates on the Vincennes, were lost that night. Ernie's life experiences added up to the skills that helped enable him to survive that night.