After graduating from Harvard in 1938, cum laude, Richard Tregaskis was a journalist and a staff member of International News Service. 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, Guadalcanal Diary. This book set the genre of war correspondence and still is considered essential reading by U.S. military personnel. Tregaskis was also in the European theatre following the Allies of the invasion of Italy, and then the American forces from Normandy into Germany, from which 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. R.T. 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, R.T. was contracted to write about one of the largest war-time construction efforts in history. His book, Southeast Asia: Building the Bases The History of Construction in Southeast Asia was an incredible undertaking which only he, with his talent and expertise could write. It covers every major construction by the U.S. Navy Construction Battalions (Navy SEABEES), and other military and civilian engineers and their stories as the events of the war evolved.Amidst writing for motion pictures and television, R.T. 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. Tregaskis transports the reader back in time to when the Hawaiian Islands were under the rule of many kings and the events that transpired to create a one Hawaiian Nation, governed by one ruler for the prosperity of all of the Hawaiian people. R.T. 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 travels to and writing about India, that this manuscript came to fruition. In 1964, Richard Tregaskis was awarded the George Polk Award for reporting under hazardous conditions. The helmet he wore in 1943 in Sicily 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 R.T. 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.
