This article examines phases of disaster response and recovery as a sociological problem.

The personal diary of Sigismund Koperniak, a Navy veteran, detailing his experiences aboard the destroyer USS Spence during World War II. Launching of the Spence and sea trials off Portland, Maine, January, 1943; shakedown cruise to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, February, 1943; escort duty in the Atlantic and Caribbean, March, 1943; convoy duty in the Casablanca, French Morocco, area, April-May, 1943; passage through the Panama Canal, June, 1943; escort duty for the carriers Princeton and Belleau Wood en route to Baker Island, September, 1943; attachment to Destroyer Division 23 in the Solomon Islands, September, 1943; patrols off Kolombangara and Vella Lavella Islands; interdiction of Japanese shipping and the Spence's role in sinking of twenty barges off of Vella Lavella; bombardment of Buka-Bonis airfields, November 1, 1943; Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, November 2, 1943; support for landings on Bougainville, November 3, 1943; capture of a Japanese sailor; continued attacks by Japanese aircraft; gun battles with Japanese cruisers and destroyers in the Buka-Rabaul route, November 24, 1943; shore bombardments of Tiaraka, Bougainville, Kavieng, and New Ireland, January-February, 1944; shore bombardment of Emirau, Aitape, Humboldt Bay, and Caroline Islands, March 1-24, 1944; shore bombardment during the invasions of the Marianas Islands, June 19-27, …