Neptune's Inferno_ The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal - James D. Hornfischer [268]
41: Future Rising
Guadalcanal leading nowhere: “It had no geographical relation to the course the war would later follow, neither to Nimitz’s central Pacific campaign nor to MacArthur’s return to the Philippines.” Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 257. “People were killed all around me” and “I just cried my heart out”: Graff interview. “This was a privilege”: McKinney, CL-51 Revisited, 69–70. “We hate the petty bickering”: Shaw, Beside Me Still, 104. “Years later I’d have nightmares”: Joslin, quoted in National Geographic Society, The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal. “They gave this city a strange feeling”: San Francisco Chronicle, “The San Francisco Heroes’ Parade” 155, no. 155, 1. “They didn’t think”: O’Brien, Robert, “When the Proudest Veteran Came Home,” unknown publication, in Spencer, The War Years: Hellfire and Glory, appendix. “In the press”: Spencer, The War Years, 2:11. “Polishing off a battleship”: Davies, “Cruiser San Francisco, Home,” 1, 7. The Boise “sank six Japanese warships”: New York Times, “Boise Captain Gives Credit,” November 24, 1942. Gatch’s statement: Fox Movie Tone News, “Hero ‘Battleship X.’ ” “Victory has a hundred fathers”: Keyes, The Quote Verifier, 234–235. “Informal inquiry into the circumstances”: King to Forrestal, “Investigation of the Loss of the USS Vincennes, USS Quincy, USS Astoria, and HMAS Canberra,” 2. “He is not a colorful personality”: Baldwin, “A Sailor-Diplomat Runs Up His Colors,” SM9. “Dawn is about to break”: Morison, The Struggle for Guadalcanal, 317. “Those who can stand”: Frank, Guadalcanal, 527. “It is unacceptable”: Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 461. Operation KE and evacuation statistics: Frank, Guadalcanal, 595. “Total and complete defeat”: Patch to Halsey, February 9, 1943.
42: Report and Echo
“Full of the usual horror stories”: Shaw, Beside Me Still, 119. “I now see”: Ibid., 155. “As soon as I could talk”: Graff interview. “The requirement to be ready”: Mustin interview, 513. “Think creatively” and “There are no secrets”: Graff interview. “Something new the psychiatrists”: Custer, Through the Perilous Night, 223. “We have received news”: Ibid., 238–239. “You may not care”: Ibid., 241. “This young man”: Harrison interview. The Sullivans in Waterloo: Satterfield, We Band of Brothers, 199. “The most complete and lucid report”: Hepburn, “Report of Informal Inquiry into the Circumstances Attending the Loss of the USS Vincennes, Quincy and Astoria, and HMAS Canberra, on 9 August 1942, in the Vicinity of Savo Island (Solomon Islands),” 37.
43: The Opinion of Convening Authority
“No one man was responsible”: Weaver, “Some Reminiscences,” 14. “In every circle”: Livy, Book 44, chapter 22. A typescript of a fuller version of this quotation is contained in the Ghormley Papers, box 15, folder u. ECU. “The deficiencies which manifested”: Russell to King, “Memo for Admiral,” 2. In his command study of Admiral Fletcher, Black Shoe Carrier Admiral, John Lundstrom argues that Fletcher should not be criticized for deciding to withdraw Task Force 61 because the decision was announced at a conference in advance of its execution. The record establishes that neither Nimitz nor Ghormley managed to referee this important disagreement among their subordinates. “Sheer stodgy unimaginative bureaucratic complacency”: Stone, “Brass Hats Undaunted,” September 8, 1945, in The Best of I. F. Stone, 90. “Too indefinite in regard” and “No special battle plan”: cited in Hepburn, “Report of Informal Inquiry into the Circumstances Attending the Loss of the USS Vincennes, Quincy and Astoria, and HMAS Canberra, on 9 August 1942, in the Vicinity of Savo Island (Solomon Islands),” Paragraph 79, 35. “Were faulty in requiring them”: Ibid., 35–36. “Only one plan”: Ibid., 41. “In my opinion”: Ibid., 44. “I have been accused”: Dyer, The Amphibians Came to Conquer,