Rex A Knight

Rex A Knight lives in rural southern Indiana and is a successful author and historical researcher. In the 1990s, he became a successful freelance historical writer, writing numerous feature articles for World War II magazine (Empire Press/Cowles Magazines and later Prime Media). In 1999, he self-published (Tichenor Publishing) in hardback a complete history of the United States destroyer USS LANG, entitled RIDING ON LUCK, The Saga of the USS LANG DD-399. This book was successful and later picked up by Hellgate Press for publication in soft cover, released in 2001. Later that year, he was allowed membership into the Author’s Guild, where he maintains active membership. His collection of Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) artifacts is among the most important in private hands and has been hosted in exhibitions in a number of important museum venues. His educational background is in Sociology, having an Associate’s Degree through Vincennes University (Vincennes, IN) in Sociology for Community/Economic Development, wherein he became a technical writer and regional planner overseeing five counties in the state of Indiana. He is now retired and enjoying a return to his roots as a historical researcher and writer. He continues his historical research, with plans for additional historical biographies in the future. He has also ventured into a fictional work for young adults, a story about a search for treasure entitled SACRED GROUND (Covenant Books, 2024). Perhaps his most important work is the upcoming release of AMBUSH AT VELLA GULF, the complete story of a pivotal destroyer on destroyer engagement in the Solomon Islands on the night of August 6-7, 1943. This book is being published through Globe Pequot and Stackpole Books, scheduled for release in October 2026.

As a young man, Ralph Barber had no concept of the future events that he would witness, or how some innocent quick decisions were to impact this journey. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and like many young men of his generation, he watched his family struggle through the Great Depression. As a teenager, Ralph was fortunate to find consistent employment at a local pharmacy, making a decent ten cents an hour. He was content. He later graduated from high school and found new employment with Tennessee Coal and Iron (TCI), working at a machine shop for a whopping sixty cents an hour (great wages for the summer of 1941). His luck at finding great jobs kept him feeling impressed with his decision making. But the world outside the United States was on fire and out of control, consumed in a new and terrible world war. The writing was on the wall, and the U. S. government had already established a new military draft. Some of the older men who he worked with were veterans of the First Would War, and they tormented him daily with terrible stories of the trenches. The stories began to worry him. He wanted nothing to do with those terrible trenches and the army, so he quickly decided to act. He found out that an old high school friend was now a local Navy recruiter, and so he quickly decided to enlist. His friend promised to take good care of him, using his pharmacy experience to sign him up as a hospital apprentice, circumventing boot camp, while providing a good wage and basing him at the not-to-distant Pensacola Naval Air Station Mainside Hospital. All appeared well, posted at a stateside and safe location. But, as Ralph was to learn, the military rarely cares about the best laid individual plans. His lack of training was soon found out and he was sent off to boot camp anyway. He would still get his hospital apprentice rating, but he had to earn it. He trained at the Norfolk Naval Hospital. He was still here when on December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He now knew that his future, just like the future of a great many other young men of his time, was of an uncertain destiny. He made numerous moves thereafter, unsuspectedly reunited with his old high school sweetheart, got engaged, and then had to leave before the marriage could be finalized. He traveled two thousand miles cross-county to California and then farther on into the embattled South Pacific, part of a Navy Mobile Operating Base (MOB). His new location was on a beautiful island, Noumea, and he again felt fortunate and safe. At the MOB hospital, Ralph assisted many casualties from the ongoing Pacific war. It was trying work, but Ralph excelled at it and soon aspired to become a doctor. He signed up for a new program, directing him back to the states for training. Once again, everything seemed to be going his way. He and his sweetheart would soon be back together. And then, once again, Ralph made one of his hasty decisions, and his future took another unexpected turn. His plans backfired. A trip back to the states turned into many months at sea, initially facing one of the most monumental moments in naval history, a faceoff with the deadly Tokyo Express at a place called Vella Gulf.

 

The story of Ralph Barber, his change-of-life experience and its life-long impacts, is one of a number of personalized wartime imageries detailed in Ambush at Vella Gulf. A true story of the full development of what became known as the most perfectly fought naval engagement of World War II. This forty-five-minute firestorm opened the door for a new strategy in the Pacific and sped up the advance by many months. Any chance the Japanese had previously at forcing the United States to a table of truce ended in a horrifying defeat. To fully understand the victory requires one to fully understand the stages of the Pacific conflict to this point, and to be fully introduced to the individuals (on both sides) who were to join in battle on that dreadfully dark night in August of 1943.

 

Read the full story! Get your copy of Ambush at Vella Gulf now! Released by Stackpole Books on October 6, 2026. The Americans who "rose to the occasion" at Vella Gulf share their remarkable story. Available wherever books are sold.