Author Rob Thompson says telling a story is like peeling back the layers of an onion. He usually begins researching for a book when he finds the end of story and wants to know more.
(Provided photos)
Eugene Straub, an Attica man who served on the USS Juneau with the Sullivan Brothers was someone Thompson wanted to know more about. He began searching for Straub’s family and what happened to him. Thompson started his research aboard the USS The Sullivans at the Buffalo Naval Park.
After spending a weekend aboard the ship, Thompson discovered that there was no history on the ship at all. So he decided to write about the history of the Sullivans also.
“We introduce everybody to the Sullivan brothers and who they were and what happened to them in 1942 and how the ship the USS The Sullivans got its name.”
The five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, along with Straub, were aboard the USS Juneau when on November 13, 1942, during the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Juneau was hit by several torpedoes from a Japanese submarine and sank. All but ten men died, some in the initial incident and others while waiting to be rescued. Eugene Straub, a gunner’s mate, who had already served with the Navy and decided to re-enlist after the attack on Pearl Harbor, also died in the incident.
“So we focused part of our book on the emotional side of Eugene Straub. I knew he had a daughter named Marj, she was about 3 years old when he died and she never met her dad.”
(Marjorie Lagana/provided photo)
Thompson found Marj Lagana through an obituary notice for Staub’s wife Marien. The obit included the name of another daughter, Veronica, of Buffalo.
“I called her up and she gave me Marj’s phone number, we talked for four hours, we talked through a whole Mets game, which is good, terrible season.”
Marj says she spent a lot of time a her grandparents house on Main street in Attica. “I said, you know that is our home?”
It turns out that Marj had grown up and spent most of her childhood in the home that Thompson and his wife now own.
“That’s spooky, that’s fate stuff.”
(Provided photos)
In July of 2018, Thompson invited Marj, who now lives in Utica, NY, to the USS The Sullivans at the Buffalo Naval Park for an issuance of her father’s purple heart and WWII medals at a Memorial Service for her dad. The Patriot Guard and law enforcement agencies assisted with an escort to the park.
“We focused on her because she is a local face, didn’t want to dwell on the guns and bullets. I try to tell my non-fiction in a way that does not bore people because history can be extremely boring, so I try to combine emotion, history and fun.”
Thompson says he probably puts about 1,000 hours at least into fact checking, research, doing online work and interviewing over the course of a year as he writes a book. After spending three nights aboard the USS The Sullivans working on the paranormal side of the story, he decided to call it Weekend with George because George is supposedly haunting the ship. George is the only Sullivan brother that survived the blast, but he only lived 7 days afterwards.
In researching for the book Thompson says he learned a lot of history he did not plan on getting into.
“In doing the book, I learned a lot of history, that’s what’s fun for me. I have to have a challenge as much as the reader,” says Thompson.
“I don’t try to overload a reader with a lot of minutiae, I give them enough that if they find it interesting, they can go out and say I want to see what happened in this story. Stuff like finding Marj, these are the rewards of doing this.”
Currently, Thompson is working on three other books. The next one that will be coming out will be called Auschwitz, Time Marches on and is a follow to “This is Mauthausen”. The second book is about the Irish invasion of Canada from Buffalo and has to do with the Battle of Fort Erie and tracing the roots from Buffalo to the IRA(The Irish Republican Army). The third book will be titled Cidermaker and will be part three of the Linden Murders series. The man named as the killer in the series was a cidermaker. It will be out in a few years.
To purchase any of Thompson’s 15 books you can go online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble online or at Made in America stores.
To keep up with Thompson you can find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rob.thompson.10236115
He will also attend a book signing session at the LeRoy Winterfest at the Moose from 10-6:00p.m. at 21 Bank street. Books can be purchased at the signing.
(Thompson at the Alexander Craft Fair this past weekend)
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