“While the Guadalcanal campaign saw the vast majority of the heavy lifting done by the Marines, Army troops took part in the battles for Henderson Field, Point Cruz, Koli Point and other locations. Calling the operation completely a Navy/Marine operation isn’t entirely accurate.”
Thanks for pointing that out.
I would simply add that while the Guadalcanal/Solomons campaign was going on, there was a separate CINC for the SW Pacific Theater — Admiral William F. Halsey.
Nimitz had the Central Pacific; MacArthur the South Pacific. Theoretically they were co-equal, but I’m sure that Halsey reported to Nimitz and also had to reconcile his actions with MacArthur’s forces fighting on New Guinea.
Thanks for your thoughts. The idea of split command, while not completely optimal, did tone down the inter-service rivalries of the day.
And it also worked, so it’s really hard to knock.