The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance

Spruance or Halsey: Who was the better man for the job?

"Spruance was the right man for the job at Midway."
--B. K. (Bill) Vickrey

It should first be noted that Raymond Spruance was NOT the OTC (Officer in Tactical Command) at Midway. This distinction went to Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher; after YORKTOWN was abandoned Admiral Fletcher moved his Flag to ASTORIA. Spruance signaled Fletcher along the lines: "Have you any instructions for me?" to which Fletcher responded, "None, I will conform to your movements." Fletcher turned over tactical command to Spruance but this was about noon on 4 June well after AKAGI, KAGA and SORYU had been destroyed. Thus, for much of the battle, Fletcher was OTC. For whatever other good things Fletcher did for his country, none was more valuable than his turning over tactical command to Spruance.

There were several major factors involved in our winning the Battle of Midway.

We had broken the Japanese code (JN-25).
Admiral Nimitz was CinCPAC and had the guts to support Rochefort (OIC of HYPO at Pearl) in his conviction that AF was Midway. Admiral King thought that the upcoming attack was another one on Pearl, General Marshall and General Arnold felt that it might be an attack on the West Coast.
The Japanese had a bad case of "Victory Disease" having swept everything before them from Pearl Harbor through the Dutch East Indies, the Indian Ocean etc. without losing a major vessel.
The Japanese did not get their submarine line in place until 1 June, after our carriers had crossed that line.
Lieutenant Commander C. Wade McClusky's decision to search beyond the rational range of his aircraft (SBD's) and thus finding the Japanese carriers with their aircraft all on deck, fully fueled and armed. McClusky was Air Group Commander on ENTERPRISE. He lost over half of his aircraft due to fuel starvation.
Spruance being in command of TF 16 rather than Halsey.

Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr.

Admiral King, the arrogant and brilliant CNO, claimed that he (King) was the second smartest officer in the Navy--second only to Raymond Spruance. Spruance himself claimed to be very lazy and, in this context, chose able subordinates, gave them general instructions and insisted that they run with the ball. He made a stellar - and "ballsy" - decision at Midway when he decided to launch all ENTERPRISE and HORNET aircraft at once and at maximum range expecting to catch the Japanese while they were rearming and refueling their planes from the early morning attack on Midway Island. He was successful in this but did lose a goodly number of planes and pilots. However, we lost only 307 Men in the Battle of Midway while the Japanese lost about 2,500. While one American life is too many to lose, this was a small price for the victory at Midway.

In the afternoon of 4 June, Spruance refused to launch his aircraft until the last carrier, HIRYU, was definitely located. At about 1400 hours Lieutenant Sam Adams - of VS-5 from YORKTOWN - located her. As soon as this was done, Spruance launched SBD's from both ENTERPRISE and HORNET. ENTERPRISE found her shortly after 1700 hours and left her a burning hulk in just a few minutes. HORNET's SBD's got there after ENTERPRISE had attacked and went after the vessels in her screen.

Those present are (left to right): Admiral Nimitz;
Lieutenant General Delos C. Emmons, U.S. Army;
Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, USN;
Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, USN and
Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, U.S. Army.

Once all the aircraft had gotten back to ENTERPRISE and HORNET, Spruance turned the fleet to the East, gave instructions as to what they were to do during the night and was in bed and sound asleep by 2200 hours. This was a major decision, which, I feel, Halsey would have made differently. Had Spruance moved westward, he would have run head long into Japan's heavy battleships. One of the things we did not know at the time was that Admiral Yamamoto's fleet was about 300 miles behind the Japanese carriers. Once he found out about the loss of Nagumo's carriers, he brought his fleet to the scene at flank speed. Japan was very skilled at night fighting and we were not, as we proved at the Battle of Savo Island. Yamamoto was looking for a night battle. If Spruance had accommodated him we would have likely lost ENTERPRISE and HORNET and possibly the war in the Pacific. Spruance is still criticized for this movement but he was absolutely right. On 8 June 1942, Spruance wrote a personal letter to Admiral Nimitz giving him a report on the Battle. He later wrote an official report. In his personal letter, he said:

"I did not feel justified in risking a night encounter with possibly superior enemy forces, but on other hand, I did not want to be too far away from Midway on the next morning. I wished to have a position from which either to follow up retreating enemy forces or to break up a landing attack on Midway. At this time the possibility of the enemy having a fifth CV somewhere in the area, possibly with his Occupation Force or else to the northwestward, still existed."

He was right...there was a small carrier with the Main Body of Yamamoto's fleet. Yamamoto had his flag on YAMOTO, which was the biggest battleship ever built and which was armed with 18-inch guns. ENTERPRISE and HORNET would have had a hard time with this opposition!

Spruance made perhaps his most courageous decision on 5 June. His SBD's were launched late in the afternoon and did not get back until after dark. Without knowing how many Japanese subs were lurking nearby, he had ENTERPRISE and HORNET turn on their lights so that their aircraft could land aboard. He did this for two very good reasons:

He did not want to sacrifice the lives of the young Americans who were aloft;
He did not want to lose those precious SBD's and their pilots.
One needs only to look at the cool, calculating actions Spruance took to say, "he was the right man for the job at Midway." Admiral Halsey was a great sea going Admiral but was inclined to "charge to the sound of the guns". There are places in Naval warfare for such action but Midway was not one of those.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea
19-20 June 1944

Spruance's Decision

Admiral Spruance decided to retire eastwards with Task Force 58 - away from the Japanese fleet - on the night of 18/19 June 1944, contrary to the recommendation and wishes of Vice Admiral Mitscher and the staff of the Fast Carrier Force, who wanted to steam westwards to place the carrier force in what would have been an almost ideal position for a strike on the Mobile Fleet at dawn. This was very quickly to become by far the most debated command decision of the Pacific Naval War, with Spruance coming under severe criticism, especially from the naval aviators, including most notably Admiral John Towers, former chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics and at the time of the Battle of the Philippine Sea Deputy C-in-C of the Pacific Fleet. Towers strongly advocated Spruance's immediate removal from command of the Fifth Fleet.

Some commentators continue to upbraid Spruance - for example Clark G. Reynolds asserts "Spruance had revealed himself to be a formalist in the tradition of conservative fleet tacticians of the pre-Rodney era. Mitscher, by contrast, was a meleeist of the Nelson mould . . . Six Japanese carriers had survived to fight again . . Mitscher knew that through no fault of his own he had missed the chance of a lifetime." [Reynolds - "Admiral Marc A. Mitscher" in "Men of War - Great Naval Leaders of World War II" edited by Stephen Howarth {London 1992}].

"The immediate reaction in Task Force 58 to the Battle of the Philippine Sea was one of disappointment and vexation. Admiral Clark, only ten days after, told this writer 'it was the chance of a century missed.' Admiral Mitscher thus concluded his action report: 'The enemy escaped. He had been badly hurt by one aggressive carrier strike, at the one time he was within range. His fleet was not sunk.'

Admiral Montgomery wrote:-

'Results of the action were extremely disappointing to all hands, in that important units of the enemy fleet, which came out in the open for the first time in over a year and made several air attacks on our superior force, were able to escape without our coming to grips with them. It is true that our troops on Saipan were well screened and protected against the enemy surface force, but it is considered unfortunate that our entire strength was deployed for this purpose and therefore not permitted an opportunity to take the offensive until too late to prevent the enemy's retirement.'

At naval air headquarters in Pearl harbor the line was, 'This is what comes from placing a non-aviator in command over carriers.' Admiral Spruance had never won wings, but that does not prove that he did not know what to do with naval air power. After all, he more than anyone else had won the Battle of Midway. He was not infallible, of course. In warfare, where decisions have to be made promptly on imperfect intelligence of the enemy, mistakes are inevitable; and in considering a commander's actions we should base our judgment on his reaction to factors known or legitimately guessed by him at the time, not on the fuller knowledge that reaches an historian years later.

Admiral Marc A. Mitscher

There was no distinction between Spruance and Mitscher in aggressiveness, fighting spirit or desire to come to grips with the enemy. The difference in their respective attitudes was due to the scope of their respective responsibilities. Mitscher was responsible only for TF58; hence his absorbing passion was to destroy the Japanese carriers that menaced his carriers. Spruance had the overall responsibility for Operation 'Forager' [invasion of the Marianas]; for the Joint Expeditionary Force as well as the carriers; for the troops ashore on Saipan and the Guam assault force, which was still hanging in the bight. His objective was to secure the Marianas. Imbued with a strong sense of his mission, Spruance refused to be diverted; he was unwilling to accept the risk that the Japanese ships reported up to the early hours of 19 June might be only a detachment of the Mobile Fleet.

On the other side, there are three alleged counts against Spruance. First , Mahan is quoted to the effect that the main object of a fleet is to destroy the enemy's fleet. But where did Mahan say this? [The nearest thing we can find is in his 'Naval Strategy' p.199, where, discussing the Siege of Gibraltar, he says 'In war the proper main objective of the navy is the enemy's navy.' And, on pp. 220-21, his discussion strongly supports the decisions of Spruance in this battle.] Second, that a powerful striking force as mobile as the fast carriers should never be tied to the apron strings of an amphibious operation. Third, that in view of the known strength of Ozawa's Mobile Fleet any possible 'end run' could have been dealt with adequately by the ships left to guard Saipan. No danger of a flanking movement actually existed; but, in view of Japanese past performances, the possibility had to be anticipated. Military men never get any credit for guarding against dangers that might occur but do not, but they are quickly 'hanged' if they fail adequately to guard against dangers that do occur - witness Pearl Harbor.

Admiral Spruance, who is able to view his own actions candidly and without emotion, still thought eight years later that he had missed a great opportunity. 'As a matter of tactics,' he wrote to me in 1952, 'I think that going out after the Japanese and knocking their carriers out would have been much better . . . than waiting for them to attack us; but we were at the start of a very large and important amphibious operation and we could not afford to gamble and place it in jeopardy. The way Togo waited at Tsushima for the Russian fleet has always been in my mind. We had somewhat the same basic situation, only it was modified by the long-range striking power of the carriers.'

Yet would it have been better, as a matter of tactics, to have sought out Ozawa's fleet on the night of 18-19 June and attacked it next morning? We cannot assume that fortune would have favored the strong - it did not do so at Midway. Our dive- and torpedo-bombers would probably have sunk some of the Japanese carriers; but the Japanese planes might also have sunk some of ours. And the 'Turkey Shoot' could never have made such a spectular score if Mitscher had had to divide his air forces between offense and defense; Ozawa's planes and anti-aircraft would probably have doubled or trebled their small bag of American planes and pilots if he had been on the defensive on the morning of 19 June, and had been able on the 20th to employ his full air strength instead of a poor remnant. Moreover, Japanese land-based air forces at Guam could have got into the fight if the battle had been joined halfway between Ozawa's position and the Marianas. Spruance, by steering east on the night of 18-19 June, against Mitscher's wishes and his own inclination, put Task Force 58 in about the optimum position to inflict the greatest damage on the enemy. His entire fleet was concentrated. All fighter planes were available for interception, and enemy planes that escaped them encountered the anti-aircraft fire of Lee's battle line. And the Japanese planes on Guam were knocked out before they could take the offensive . . .

. . . Admiral Mahan never said that destruction of an enemy fleet was an object in itself, but a means to the greater ends of victory and a lasting peace. The Battle of the Philippine Sea contributed as much to victory as if Ozawa's fleet had been destroyed; for without its air arm the fleet was crippled, and the six carriers that survived were useful only as decoys to lure another American admiral to do what Spruance had declined to do. Admiral Toyoda had announced on 15 June "the fate of the Empire rests on this one battle." He was right. It decided the Marianas Campaign by giving the United States Navy command of the surrounding waters and air. Thus, the Japanese land forces in Saipan, Tinian and Guam were doomed, no matter how bravely and doggedly they fought. And victory in the Marianas made an American victory over Japan inevitable.

Admiral Spruance compared his tactics to those of Togo at Tsushima in 1905. An historical parallel more remote in time but closer in fact, because amphibious and land operations were involved, was the Yorktown campaign of 1781. In the naval battle of the Chesapeake, on 5 September of that year, Admiral de Grasse defeated an inferior fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves that threatened to break into the Chesapeake and raise the siege of Yorktown. The battle itself was not tactically decisive since Graves lost but one of his nineteen capital ships, and De Grasse was criticized for not renewing action. But he covered the British in a week's maneuvering at sea, shouldering them away from the Cape long enough for a second French fleet to enter Hampton Roads with Rochambeau's siege artillery, and later to enter himself. In other words, De Grasse's sense of his mission, to support the Allied land campaign against Cornwallis, prevented him from risking the chance of throwing away his advantage. His cautious tactics rendered Cornwallis' surrender inevitable; and so won the War of Independence, although the British Fleet was not destroyed. Spruance's sense of his mission, to protect the amphibious operation against Saipan, precluded his running undue risks; he failed to annihilate the Japanese Fleet, but he won air and sea command, so that the Japanese forces in those islands were sealed off from any hope of reinforcement."

Additional Sources:

library.nps.navy.mil
www.angelfire.com/fm/odyssey/PS_Spruance.htm
www.navysna.org
www.history.navy.mil
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

'A man's judgment is best when he can forget himself and any reputation he may have acquired and can concentrate wholly on making the right decisions.'

-- Admiral Raymond Spruance

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On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on July 05:
1709 - Etienne de Silhouette French minister of finance who gave his name to outline portraits
1755 Sarah Kemble Siddons Brecon England, tragic actress (Fatal Marriage)
1781 Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore
1794 Sylvester Graham developed graham cracker
1801 David G Farragut Knoxville Tenn, naval hero
1810 Phineas Taylor Barnum Bethel Conn, circus promoter (Barnum & Bailey)
1853 Cecil John Rhodes South Africa, politician, diamond merchant
1857 Clara Zetkin German women's rights advocate
1867 Dr Andrew Ellicott Douglass Dendrochronologer (study of tree rings)
1877 Wanda Landowska Warsaw Poland, harpsichordist
1879 Dwight Filley Davis donated tennis' Davis Cup
1879 Wanda A Landowska Warsaw Poland, harpsichordist (Musique Ancienne)
1886 Willem Drees PM of Netherland (1948-58)
1889 Jean Cocteau France, writer/artist/film maker (Le Potamak)
1891 John Northrop US, biochemist, crystallized enzymes (Nobel 1946)
1897 Paul Ben-Haim (Frankenburger) Mnchen Germany, Israeli composer
1900 Bernard Cardinal Alfrink cardinal of Ultrecht Netherlands
1902 Henry Cabot Lodge (R) politician/ambassador (VP candidate 1960)
1904 Don Goddard Binghamton NY, news ancher (ABC Evening News 1958-59)
1904 Milburn Stone Bruton Ks, actor (Doc-Gunsmoke)
1909 Andrei Gromyko USSR, diplomat/USSR President (1985-89) [7/18 NS]
1913 Smiley Lewis Louisiana, vocalist (I Hear You Knockin')
1918 George Rochberg Paterson NJ, composer (Concord Quartet)
1923 John McKay WV, football coach (USC, Tampa Bay)
1924 Beverly Tyler Scranton Pa, actress (Lorelei-Big Town)
1924 Jan¢s Starker Budapest Hungary, cellist (Chic Symph 1953-58)
1928 Beverly Tyler Scranton Pa, actress (Best Foot Forward, Fireball)
1928 Warren Oates Depoy Ky, actor (East of Eden, Stoney Burke)
1929 Katherine Helmond Galveston Tx, actress (Soap, Mona-Who's the Boss)
1936 Shirley Knight Goessei Kansas, actress (Endless Love, Secrets)
1937 Brooke Hayward LA Calif, author (Haywire)
1944 Robbie Robertson Classic Rock Singer, Guitarist "The Band"
1945 Curtis Blefary baseball player (1965 AL rookie of year)
1945 Jeffrey Kramer NYC, actor (Ted Stein-Struck by Lightning)
1948 Julie Nixon Eisenhower Wash DC, daughter of Richard Milhaus
1949 Benny Stolovitz fictional character on LA Law
1950 Gary Matthews baseball player (1973 NL rookie of year)
1951 Huey Lewis rocker (& the News-Need a New Drug)
1951 Richard "Goose" Gossage relief pitcher (Yankees, Padres)
1952 Terence T "Tom" Henricks Bryan Oh, Lt Col USAF/astronaut (STS 44)
1956 James Lofton NFL wide reciever (Bills, Packers, Raiders)
1958 Patsy Pease Winston-Salem NC, actress (Kimberly-Days of Our Lives)
1959 Marc Cohn singer (Walking in Memphis)
1959 Patricia Pease Jeffers NC, actress (Kimberly-Days of our Life)
1972 Michael Bays Enrico Calif, actor (Bronx Zoo, Days of Our Live)

Deaths which occurred on July 05:
1948 Carole Landis actress, dies at 29
1950 Pvt Kenneth Shadrick of WV becomes 1st US fatality in Korean War
1969 Tom Mboya economics minister, assassinated in Narobi Kenya
1969 Walter Gropius architect (found Bauhaus school of design), dies at 86
1979 Judson Laire actor/singer (Papa-Mama), dies at 76
1983 Harry James swing-era bandleader/trumpet player, dies in Las Vegas
1985 Marion Byron actress, dies at 73
1990 Mitch Snyder homeless advocate, commits suicide at 46 by hanging

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 EISENBRAUN WILLIAM F. SANTA ANA CA.
[08/07/65 ON PRG DIC LIST]
1966 JACKSON JAMES E. NEW YORK NY.
[11/11/67 RELEASED IN CAMBODIA]
1967 DODGE WARD KENT DIGHTON KS. [03/13/74 REMAINS RETURNED]
1967 FREDERICK WILLIAM V. DEERFIELD OH.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1/03/90]
1967 WADDELL DEWEY W. BREMEN GA.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 1998]
1968 BURNS MICHAEL T. FORT WAYNE IN.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 CRUMPLER CARL B. JACKSONVILLE FL.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1968 DEWBERRY JERRY D. ARDMORE OK.
1968 LAWRENCE BRUCE E. PHILLIPSBURG NJ.
1968 SILVER EDWARD D. JUNCTION CITY OR.
["EGRESS-SEEN IN PROPAGANDA FILM, WORE FLIGHT" "SUIT, BODY TURNED OVER AS CAMERA ZOOMED IN"]
1972 ELANDER WILLIAM J. JR. CHARLOTTE NC.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1972 LOGAN DONALD K. GRANADA HILLS CA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1972 SPENCER WILLIAM A. SAN JUAN TX.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 SEEK BRIAN J. ENCINO CA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
649 St Martin I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
767 [Constantine] begins his reign as Catholic Pope
979, A.D., World's Oldest Continuing Parliament was Tynwald: The Isle of Man.
1097: Capture of Jerusalem (1st Crusade) 10,000 massacred
1643 1st recorded tornado in US (Essex County, Massachusetts)
1687 Isaac Newton's PRINCIPIA published by Royal Society in England
1776 The Declaration of Independence is first printed by John Dunlop in Philadelphia.
1791 George Hammond was appointed as Britain's first ambassador to the United States.
1791 Jos‚ Mar¡a Narv ez discovers Point Grey, now in Vancouver, BC
1808 Battle of Buenos Aires
1811 Venezuela, 1st South American country to gain independence from Spain
1814 Americans defeat British & Canadians at Chippewa, Ontario
1830 France invades Algeria, begins a 40 year conquest
1834 Provisional government established in Oregon Country
1841 Thomas Cook opens 1st travel agency (They are first involved in organizing trips for groups opposed to alcoholic beverages.)
1843 Committee of 9 appointed to establish civil govt in Oregon Country
1859 Capt NC Brooks discovers Midway Islands
1861 Engagement at Carthage, Missouri
1865 William Booth founded Salvation Army in London
1891 Hail kills 6 horses in Rapid City, SD
1905 NY Giants 18 game win streak ends as Phillies win in 10th
1914 Boston Braves are 15 games back in NL, & win the World Series
1919 Red Sox Babe Ruth hits 2 HRs in a game for his 1st of 72 times
1921 The "Black Sox" ( The Chicago White Sox players, including stars Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, and Eddie Cicotte) are accused of throwing the World Series
1929 A Deutsch discovers asteroid #1148 Rarahu
1929 WOWO-AM, Indiana returns to air, 1 day after transmitter burns down
1932 Oliveira Salazar becomes dictator of fascist Portugal
1935 1st Hawaii Calls radio program is broadcast
1935 Chicago Cubs are 10« games back in NL, & go on to win the pennant
1935 Pres Franklin Roosevelt signs the National Labor Relations Act
1936 120ø F (49ø C), Gannvalley, South Dakota (state record)
1937 117ø F (47ø C), Medicine Lake, Montana (state record)
1937 C Jackson discovers asteroids #1428 Mombasa & #1430 Somalia
1937 Joe DiMaggio's 1st grand slammer
1938 Herb Caen's 1st column in SF Chronicle
1940 Diplomatic relations broken between Britain & Vichy govt in France
1944 Harry Crosby takes 1st rocket airplane, MX-324, for maiden flight
1946 Louis Reard's bikini swimsuit design debuts at Paris fashion show
1947 Larry Doby signs with Cleveland Indians-1st black player in AL
1948 Britain's National Health Service Act begins
1948 E L Johnson discovers asteroid #1618 Dawn
1949 NY Giants purchase Monty Irvin & Henry Thompson, their 1st blacks
1950 Law of Return passes, guarantees all Jews right to live in Israel
1951 Junction transistor invention announced, Murray Hill, NJ
1962 Algeria gains independence after 132 years of French rule
1962 Mantle hits 2 homers en route to 4 consecutive homers
1963 1st Beatle tune to hit US charts, Del Shannon "From Me to You" at #87
1964, Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona was nominated for president by the Republican national convention, meeting in San Francisco.
1966 National Guard mobilizes in Omaha after 3rd night of rioting
1966 NYC transit fare rises from 15 to 20 cents (the 1st increase since 1953)
1966 Saturn I rocket launched at Cape Kennedy
1968 John Lennon sells his psychedelic painted Rolls-Royce
1969 Rod Laver wins his 4th Wimbeldon championship
1969 Rolling Stones play a free concert in London's Hyde Park
1970 Air Canada DC-8 crashes 7 miles from Toronto's airport killing 109
1971 26th amendment certified (reduces voting age to 18)
1973 "Live & Let Die," James Bond film premiers
1973 Isle of Man begins issuing their own postage stamps
1975 Arthur Ashe wins men's single championship at Wimbeldon
1975 Cape Verde Is gain independence after 500 years of Portuguese rule
1977 Pakistan's army, led by Gen Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, seizes power
1978 Soyuz 30 spacecraft touches down in Soviet Kazakhstan
1981 Rajan Mahadevan recites 31,811 digits of ã from memory
1982 Challenger flies to Kennedy Space Center via Ellington AFB, Texas
1983 Baby girl born in Roanoke, Va., to a mother brain dead for 84 days
1983 NJ Devils purchase AHL Maine Mariners as their farm team
1983 Woman gives birth to baby 84 days after brain death (Roanoke, VA)
1984 Supreme Court weakens 70-year-old "exclusionary rule"-evidence seized with defective court warrants can now be used in criminal trials
1985 117ø F (47ø C), St George, Utah (state rec) (103ø spread, UT 1985)
1985 Nicholas Mark Sanders (England) begins circumnavigation of the globe, covering 13,035 road miles in 78 days, 3 hr, 30 min
1986 Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway sets 10K woman's record (30:13.74)
1986 Nancy Reagan cuts red, white & blue ribbon; reopens Statue of Liberty
1987 Australian Pat Cash wins Wimbledon, upsets #1 seed Ivan Lendl
1989 Barry Bond's HR sets father-son (Bobby) HR record at 408
1989 Mark McGwire's gets 100th HR, 2nd fastest (1400 at bats) (to Kiner)
1989 Rod Stewart hits his head while on stage & knocks himself out
1989 Toronto Blue Jays are 10 games back in AL, & go on to win the AL East
1990 Zina Garrison upsets Steffi Graf in Wimbeldon semi-finals
2000, President Clinton announced that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had agreed to meet at Camp David to discuss peace.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
International Cherry Pit Spitting Contest
Algeria : Independence Day (1962)
Isle of Man : Tynwald Day (1266)
Laos : Boun Festival
Rwanda : Peace & National Unity Day
Venezuela : Independence Day (1811)
Iowa : Independence Sunday - - - - - ( Sunday )
Caribbean Common Market : Caribbean Day (1973) - - - - - ( Monday )
Lesotho : Family Day - - - - - ( Monday )
Zambia : Heroes Day - - - - - ( Monday )
Zambia : Unity Day - - - - - ( Tuesday )

Religious Observances
Muslim-Brunei : Mohammed's Ascension
RC : Memorial of St Anthony-Mary Zaccaria, confessor (opt)

Religious History
1439 At the Council of Florence, the Decree of Union ('Laententur Coeli') was signed,creating an official theological union between the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic)churches. Unfortunately, the Eastern Church at large never accepted the document and a fullworking unity between these two major
1768 English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'We are reasonablecreatures, and undoubtedly reason is the candle of the Lord. By enlightening our reason tosee the meaning of the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit makes our way plain before us.'
1903 Death of English theologian William Burt Pope, 81. His 'Compendium of ChristianTheology' (1875-76) set forth the most powerful systematic arguments of his day for theholiness doctrine in Methodism.
1962 Death of Helmut Richard Niebuhr, 67. Christian Ethics professor at Yale for 30years, Niebuhr is better remembered for his popular and oft-reprinted 1951 classic, 'Christand Culture' -- a work that explores available options of relating one's personal faith tothe world's highest and noblest principles.
1963 In an instruction given by the Holy Office, disposal of the dead by cremation wasofficially granted sanction by the Catholic Church. (Belief in the resurrection of the deadhad previously made cremation repugnant to many Christians.)

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man."

Code Talker gets his due Navajo 'code talker' gets his day

This is a good job, SAM.

I would clarify "We had broken the Japanese code (JN-25)." JN-25 had lookup tables changed often enough to be a real problem, and was being decrypted, as I recall, at about 10% of the characters in a message in about one fourth of the intercepts at that time. Rochefort was heavily reliant on traffic analysis for his Midway call. A brilliant job, actually.

To go on with the story, "Admiral Nimitz was CinCPAC and had the guts to support Rochefort (OIC of HYPO at Pearl) in his conviction that AF was Midway." Nimitz was an astonishingly good judge of character, an actually superior man. Rochefort was nearly insane from extreme concentration, extreme pressure, and cryptanalysis. Only true obsession could get Rochefort's job done, and Rochefort did his duty. Rochefort slept little, and when he did he dreamed enemy traffic. I think he was working twenty four hour days, and using too much benzedrine. Nimitz backed Rochefort when Rochefort suffered under extreme and widespread skepticism.

Good Morning Snippy.

HI Feather.

Barry White
(1944 - 2003)

Click on the picture

Velvet-voiced R&B crooner Barry White, renowned for his lush baritone and lyrics that oozed sex appeal on songs such as Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe, died this morning, his manager said.

White, who had suffered kidney failure from years of high blood pressure, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre around 9:30 am (2300 AEST), said manager Ned Shankman. He was 58.

1964, Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona was nominated for president by the Republican national convention, meeting in San Francisco.

How different would the 60's have been had Goldwater been elected? Medicare, Great Society, War on Poverty, Vietnam, Race Riots

Thanks for the link GailA. The Navajo Codetalkers were responsible for saving a lot of lives in the Pacific theatre.

You're correct.

We were only reading snippetes of the Japanese code.

"Broken" does make it sound awful easy doesn't it.? The work these men did is amazing considering they didn't have computers to do the number crunching for them.

Thank you so much SAM.

You're welcome Feather. He had a great singing voice. I loved his music.

I read this essay on Task Force 58, Battle of the Phillipine Sea, June 18-19 1944, with appreciation. It makes me wonder if Spruance didn't avoid a Halsey like lunge for empty Japanese carriers that so nearly caused extreme disaster at the Battle Off Samar Island. (The Leyte landing could have been annihilated, something like 40,000 Americans killed and captured.) Looks like Halsey fell for the bait Spruance resisted.

Again, SAM, a good job. I just finished Michael Smith's Bloody Ridge, a very thorough job on the Edson's Ridge battle of 13-14 September 1942 (Guadalcanal). Smith uses sources I've never seen, including Japanese documents and survivor interviews. Best telling of the story I've seen.

BARRY WHITE
THANK YOU for YOUR GIFTS of LOVE to the WORLD

DREAM SOFTY
But, this poet put desire on canvas
to satisfy a soul in love
and writes wooing us to dream softly...

bentfeather

Beloved Barry White
There will never be another you.

ms feather