Bruce Petty was born in Long Beach, California, in 1945. He grew up in California and enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves at Alameda Naval Air Station in 1962. After graduation from high school, he served two years aboard USS Yorktown (CVS-10) as an aviation ordnanceman and is a Vietnam War veteran.
He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara, with a degree in history in 1972. In 1995, along with his wife and children, he moved to Saipan in the Mariana Islands, returning to California in 2000. While on Saipan, he researched and wrote his first book, “Saipan: Oral Histories of the Pacific War.”
Since then, he has written three other books on the Pacific War plus numerous articles for such magazines as Inside History, WWII History Magazine, and The Naval History Magazine. His latest book is titled, New Zealand in The Pacific War. He now lives in New Plymouth, New Zealand.
Over the years, he has lectured to high school students, veterans’ groups, and historical societies. He has also spoken twice at the US Naval Academy at the biannual McMullen Symposium (Naval History Symposium :: History Department :: USNA).
For the past fourteen years, he has been an enrichment lecturer on cruise ships: Princess, Holland America, Viking, and Heritage Expeditions. He is currently a member of the Professional Speakers Association of New Zealand (Professional Speakers Association of NZ – Supporting Members Along The Professional Speaking Pathway).
With the above credits he now seeks new venues in which he can share his knowledge and is open to speaking engagement throughout New Zealand, Australia, and other parts of the world.
My latest book is:
“New Zealand in the Pacific War: Personal Accounts of World War II.”
