Neptune's Inferno_ The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal - James D. Hornfischer [250]
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Admiral Arthur J. Hepburn conducted the official inquest into the causes of the defeat at Savo Island. Scapegoats were duly found.
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Eugene Tarrant, photographed March 5, 2007 in San Francisco, served as captain’s cook in the San Francisco.
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The New Orleans returns to Pearl Harbor with a false bow and her forward eight-inch guns removed.
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What victory looks like: Guadalcanal boasts a new wharf and several cranes to assist in unloading supplies.
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Ghormley with Eleanor Roosevelt at Pearl Harbor, 1943. Ghormley’s relief was wrongly thought the consequence of the defeat at Savo Island. Nimitz believed he was having a nervous breakdown.
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The sailors of the PT boat fleet fought gallantly in the Solomons, but the press still felt the need to sensationalize their capabilities.
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After a taste of victory, the Navy learned how to play the PR game. Captain Gatch of the South Dakota confers with journalist Sidney Shallet in July 1943.
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Lieutenant Hugh M. Robinson (left) and Lieutenant John M. Searles (right) display the scorecard for Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3: thirteen hits on Japanese ships in four months of work.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In three years of research and two of writing, I’ve accumulated several file cabinets full of debts to acknowledge. It’s always a pleasure to do so.
I am again indebted to Tracy Devine, senior editor at Bantam Books, for a thousand small things and maybe two dozen larger ones toward the rehabilitation of my first and second drafts into prime form. Richard B. Frank, the author of the Guadalcanal campaign’s definitive history, reviewed a draft of this manuscript, generously applying his vast expertise to save me from a number of embarrassments. Any remaining errors are mine to own.
My sincerest thanks to Edward August and Channing Zucker of the U.S. Cruiser Sailors Association; Aileen Boyle; David J. Brouchoud; Evelyn Cherpak and Teresa Clements at the Naval War College; Robert J. Cressman; Jonathan Dembo, Martha Elmore, and Dale Sauter in the Special Collections Department at East Carolina University’s Joyner Library; Rebecca Doolin of the Owen County (Kentucky) Public Library; Robert L. Ghormley, Jr.; Eric Hammel; Carl T. Hartzell; Shawn Hennessy; Richard “Chief Johnny” Johnson; Brent Jones; Janis Jorgensen of the U.S. Naval Institute; Don Kehn; Aileen Kern; Gene Kirkland; Cathy Lloyd, Edward Marolda, Timothy Pettit, and Paul Tobin of the Naval Historical Center; Kelly Sullivan Loughren; John B. Lundstrom; Gregory Mackenzie; Bruce McCandless II; Dave McComb; Helen McDonald and Floyd Cox of the National Museum of the Pacific War; Mike Matheson; Jerry Miller at the National Association of Destroyer Veterans; Vincent O’Hara; Attilio Serafini; Sam Sorenson; Clifford C. Spencer; Paul Stillwell; Paul Terrill; Barrett Tillman; Anthony Tully; Jack Wallace; Frank Weimann; Greg Wilsbacher of the University of South Carolina Newsfilm Library; Steve Wiper; Hank Wristen; and John Wukovits.
Special thanks to my longtime champion at Bantam Books, Nita Taublib, and to Angela Polidoro, assistant editor; Virginia Norey, designer; Shona McCarthy, production editor; Maggie Hart, production manager; and to the entire publishing team at Random House.
This book is dedicated to Rear Admiral Charles D. Grojean. Anyone who knew the late, great submariner and executive director of the Admiral Nimitz Foundation in Fredericksburg, Texas, or who has visited the National Museum of the Pacific War there or attended one of the annual Nimitz Symposia, or ever had the chance to speak to this warm and inspiring man about almost any subject under the sun, will understand why.
Without the love and understanding of my family, and its commodore, fleet master chief and first lieutenant, Sharon, nothing