“Pacific Crucible,” by Ian Toll, who also happened to author the wonderful “Six Frigates” recommended to me a few months back. Covering the period just before the Pearl Harbor attack until just after the tide turned at Midway, “Crucible” covers familiar territory for the hobbyist naval historian, but does so in a compelling manner, with vivid prose that fleshes out sympathetic and informative portraits of flag officers and captains on both sides, highlighted by short sketches about sailors in the gun tubs and engine rooms.
Appropriate attention is paid to Joseph Rochefort and his dogged team of cryptanalysts who made the Midway victory possible, and who paid for it – Rochefort in particular – with outrageous treatment by his Washington “superiors“.
Highly recommended.
Have my eye on that tome, in anticipation of the same style as Six Frigates. Now, you’ve forced my hand!
I read Six Frigates, Cap’n I will hold off for Crucible until you hook up Amazon, lol…
Redman was embarrassed because Rochefort does his job and Redman turns up wrong. Rochefort pays for Redman’s mistakes. Kinda like the normal order of a project which ends
“Praise and worship for the politicians who did nothing.
Punishment for those that did the work.”
Rochefort got the honors he was due after his death, which doesn’t mean an awful lot. It is shameful how things often work in this life.
Quartermaster:
“got the honors”
You miss-spelled the middle word.
Paul
Dead On QM, +1.
Concur. There really should be a DDG named Rochefort.
Mike
They are such simple things to do and can generate so much respect that I was always amazed so few supervisors, chiefs, leaders, ever did it. I mean giving credit precisely where, and to whom, it is due; Accepting that although you have the responsibility, you may not have all the best ideas. Admitting you are wrong.
Too many are unable to do that, Hog. I did my best when I was in authority (a position I hope to never see again) because I knew I had good people under me. It takes a real man to say “I was wrong.” As it says in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”
I hope I never reach that point.
I wonder how many Mids know the ugly truth behind the named “Admiral Joseph R. Redman Award” given each year? Not one I’d brag about around most SIGINT folks.
Currently reading the flip side of Toll’s book, “From Mahan to Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States” by Professor Emeritus Sadao Asada. It’s his valedictory work on the trail the IJN took from the 1890′s to 1941. Most histories of this sort are fairly dry and academic. This translation is easily the best and most fluidly written book of this nature I’ve ever read and gives an honest look at the decisions, driven by perceptions and the deepest sense of national and service needs, that drove the IJN inexorably to the eastern Pacific in December, 1941.
I enjoyed “Six Frigates” and it currently shares a self with “Neptune’s Inferno”, “Decision at Sea”, “Sheriff of Ramadi”, and “Thunder Below”. I will have to put “Pacific Crucible” on my reading list.
A follow on book is Hornfischer’s new Neptune’s Inferno: The US Navy at Guadalcanal . It was well written, albeit with little new for the cognoscenti of surface combat in the Solomons during 1942.
QM, Rochefort’s treatment by BuPers is a cautionary tale about Big Navy’s career progression straight-jacket, and it’s promotion and rewards systems. Some things are ever thus. I’m looking at you CAPTs H. Graf and Honors.
I don’t think such things are restricted to the Navy. They also happen in the other services, as well as civilian life. A professional friend had problems at LSU when a situation similar to Rochefort’s happened between him and a nominal superior. The friend is now doing the same sort of work he did at LSU outside LSU, although his income is now more precarious. It seems those things happen in any bureaucracy.
Another example of why people like Lex really “get it”. Difference between showing up for a job and showing the how and why it should be done.
Leadership. You can’t just be born to it.
Other than the dental situation back then, I really wish I could have served fifty or sixty years before I did.
Wow-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvtQ3g0ELuE
For some reason it seemed familiar…
*I need a bigger monitor*
My father always recommended “Goodbye to Some” by Gordon Forbes
That one is best viewed the way I first saw it: in an IMAX dome like at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. That’s where I saw it. Because the screen curves overhead and the stadium seating is steep there are no visual cues, just the image on the screen. Very cool.
Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. I took my father to see that not too long before he died. With his Giants in the Super Bowl this Sunday it was nice to be reminded of some time we spent together.
Thanks for that video.Wow. I’d love to see that in IMAX…
Really appricate what you Air Combat folks go through..
Hey, not me, I’m a civilian, but I join you in your appreciation.
Simply brilliant in full-screen 720p. I can’t imagine seein’ this in IMAX. Wow!
I downloaded the film from You Tube as it kept running in fits and starts. Good flick. The guy up in front of the group for the breifings was something of a metrosexual character. I would think the AF could have someone that seems a bit tougher up in front of everyone.
Read Six Frigates, and loved it. I’ll wait for the paperback version, though.
Neptune’s Inferno was awesome. The account of the first battle of Savo Island was awfully descriptive. What a command failure.
I loved Six Frigates and I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while now.
Just got finished with 1812: The Navy’s War by George C. Daughan and that was a keeper as well.
I like to think Ian Toll and I are related. My Uncle (his namesake) was a Navy man. Had two Liberty Ships (thank you FDR, they were much appreciated by my family) torpedoed from underneath him. Looking forward to this one. Thanks lex for the headsup. Birthday coming along in a few months. I must mention that Mrs HD bought me “Six Frigates” a couple of Christmases ago, all on her own research with no hints from yours truly – what a gal
She even lets me take her out on the motorbike.
“Every year the Admiral Joseph R. Redman Award is given to the midshipman of the graduating class at the United States Naval Academy who has “demonstrated the greatest achievement in the professional courses in Electrical Fundamentals and Applications” and is nominated by the Electrical Engineering Department”
I guess that’s why myths are called myths.
Got “Pacific Crucible” for Christmas and it is in the queue behind several others. “Loved Six Frigates” (see The Flight Deck, under Books).
And speaking of Midway, also check out “The Battle of Midway” by Craig L. Symonds, Oct. 2011. I zoomed through it in a weekend. In addition to covering the actual battle in June ’42, it also goes into great detail about our efforts in the Pacific post-Dec. 7 and pre-Midway.
The author references the previous excellent works by Prange (Miracle at Midway) and Parshall (Shattered Sword) and provides a history of USN Aviation and Joseph Rochefort’s work that I haven’t seen elsewhere. And a great U.S. & Japanese Order of Battle at the end. Check it out.
End of testimonial…
Thanks, Lex!
Check out “And I Was There” by Rear Admiral Edwin Layton/Roger Pineau/John Costello. (1985)
Also: “Battle Report, Pearl Harbor to Coral Sea” by Walter Karig/Welbourn Kelly. (1944) There are six books to the series. (lots of great pictures)
Both are loaded with details. My guess is this series is next to impossible to get. But, if you can, it’ll be well worth your efforts.
It has always been my opinion that the Redman brothers deserved to be drummed out of the service for their absolutely reprehensible conduct with regard to Joseph Rochefort.
But it has also always puzzled me as to why Admiral Nimitz allowed Rochefort to be transferred from his staff. Rochefort was known as a rather bizarre character who was often difficult to get along with. However, the military is famous for bizarre characters and I could tolerate almost anything to have an intelligence officer who could provide me the advantage that Rochefort gave Nimitz at Midway.
IIRC, Rochefort was not on Nimitz staff, but was attached to the Naval District. I may be remembering wrong, however. It still begs the question as to why Nimitz allowed Rochefort to be taken from the Islands. He had enough political capital that he could have demanded he stay and taken him onto his staff.
Just finished “UNBROKEN” by Laura Hillenbrand. Incredible true story of man’s inhumanity to man and the will of the human mind to overcome the most depraved, brutal and degrading treatment. Story follows an Olympic runner, Louis Zamperini, from before the war thru a B-24 crash at sea, a 2000 mile drift in a life raft only to be captured by the Japanese.
Not much on naval or army air force tactics or strategy but an incredible read about the Japanese brutality and the POW experience. Highly recommend.