Bond of 'Jersey Brothers'

Review by Bill Doughty

After Imperial Japan attacked Oahu, three brothers serving in the Navy experienced the war and witnessed history from distinct vantage points: one aboard USS Enterprise (CV 6), one as an aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and one as a Prisoner of War in the Philippines.

Barton, Bill and Benny before the war

Prior to the war, big brothers Benny Mott (gunnery officer aboard Enterprise) and Bill Mott (a naval intelligence officer) hoped to keep their younger brother, Barton Cross, safe, so Bill recommended Barton become a Supply Corps officer and serve in the  Philippines.

But then, nine hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Japanese bombed and strafed U.S. forces in the Philippine Islands. Barton was wounded and hospitalized in the air attack.

"Their opening salvos went to the heart of the island's air defenses, which proved an easy mark. Despite Washington's urgent, repeated orders to General Douglas MacArthur – at the time the U.S. Army Forces Commander in the Far East – to launch his planes and initiate air operations, beginning minutes after the start of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he did not respond. Nor did he ever issue the order. As a consequence, virtually every U.S. plane at Luzon's primary airfields, Clark Field and Nichols Field, was bombed on the ground, wingtip to wingtip. The army's entire staple of bombers, their payloads full, was wiped out in a matter of hours."

With Army Air Corps protection gone, Navy submarines of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet were vulnerable and had to sortie to Darwin, Australia. 

When it came time for MacArthur to retreat from the Philippines, he ordered the evacuation of Army casualties – but not the Navy's wounded – hospitalized in Manila.

Jersey Brother Barton became a POW, subjected to marches, deprivation and atrocities documented by eye witnesses and other records cited by author Sally Mott Freeman in "The Jersey Brothers: A Missing Naval Officer in the Pacific and His Family's Quest to Bring Him Home" (Simon & Schuster, 2017).

Escape was foremost in POWs' minds, but Imperial Japanese guards had ways of preventing escape:

"Nothing focused the mind on the perils of escape more than the particular return of three prisoners – two army colonels and a navy lieutenant – who were summarily stripped naked, marched across the camp to the entrance, tied up, and flogged to insensibility. They were kicked to their feet, led out the front gate with their hands tied behind them, and strung up to hang from cross-pieces of wood several feet above their heads. A two-by-four was placed beside them, and when any Filipinos passed by on the road, they were summoned by the Japanese guards to pick up the timber and smash each of the hanging prisoners in the face. Then the guards would follow up and lay on their whips."

All three POWs lived for three days before two were shot and the third was beheaded.

Meanwhile, Barton's brothers did everything they could to try to locate him and learn his fate.

Oldest brother, Benny, served aboard Enterprise with Adm. "Bull" Halsey, another native of New Jersey.

Years earlier, when Benny was a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, Halsey commanded the USS Reina Mercedes, the Annapolis station ship, and the two established a relationship at social gatherings for upperclassmen. Both were proud of their state:

"During those more relaxed affairs, Benny and Captain Halsey often discussed navy football and another common passion: the underappreciated virtues of their shared home state of New Jersey. Halsey had relished these chest-beating interludes about the state: 'The home of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein!' he would crow in mock exasperation, drawing wide grins from Benny every time. At Annapolis, Benny and Bill were both known for their proud defense of the Garden State – against routine mockery. They even embraced their nickname, 'the Jersey Brothers,' despite its implicit derision. Was it Halsey who started that? Benny couldn't remember, but it stuck ... Halsey always appreciated Benny's family high notes including the Motts' ancestral link to members of the iconic fraternal order that boarded the tea-laden vessels Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver in Boston Harbor in 1773."

USS Enterprise and USS South Dakota engage Japanese ships and planes on Oct. 26, 1942. NHHC.

Benny was aboard Enterprise for the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal campaign, described graphically in "The Jersey Brothers." Benny's quarters were destroyed in the attack. "His old surroundings were barely recognizable; the room was a smoky tumult of wet, scorched debris." Other gunners and other ships were not so lucky.

"The reality stunned: at the conclusion of the Battle of Santa Cruz, the USS Enterprise was now the only operational American aircraft carrier in the hostile waters of the Pacific. One by one, every other prewar flattop had either been lost in battle or forced to withdraw for lengthy repairs. Lexington had gone down in May at the Coral Sea battle. Yorktown was lost at Midway less than a month later. On the last day of August in the Eastern Solomons, Saratoga had taken a second devastating torpedo hit and retired to drydock at Pearl Harbor. Wasp, en route to Guadalcanal two weeks later, was fatally struck by three torpedoes. And now Hornet's pyre burned over the horizon."

Using "industrial-grade paint" Sailors aboard "The Big E" painted and erected a large, defiant sign: "Enterprise vs. Japan." 

"Over the course of 1942, Enterprise had been struck a total of six times by Japanese bombs or torpedoes and had suffered hundreds of casualties. The painted sign reflected both the grimness of the situation and the grit of a determined crew: this sole surviving American aircraft carrier in the seventy-million-square-mile Pacific war front was in no mood for backing down."

Benny had a ringside seat to the war in the Pacific. Jersey Brother Bill was an eyewitness to history at FDR's side, principally in the White House Map Room. Bill developed a connection with WInston Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt. He had to inform the president of the death of the Sullivan brothers, five brothers lost in November 1943 aboard the light cruiser USS Juneau off Guadalcanal.

Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner

Earlier, Bill followed Station Hypo's progress leading to the Battle of Midway. Later, after successfully lobbying to be stationed in the Pacific – closer to his brothers – Bill integrated Navajo Code Talkers so they would be "coordinated properly with their multiple constituents in the amphibious forces complex communication chain."

Bill was there when Adm. Spruance approved the firing of Army Maj. Gen. Ralph Smith in coordination with Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner and Marine Gen. Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith.

Bill's relationship with the "famously abrasive" Adm. Turner was deep and lasting. We get an insight into the character of Turner, who led amphibious assaults at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Turner supported Bill's efforts to locate his POW brother, Barton, just as Halsey supported Benny's efforts to try to find his Jersey brother.

As a Navy captain and CO of USS Astoria (CA-34) in 1939, Turner visited Japan to return the ashes of Japan's ambassador to the United States and meet with Foreign Minister Arita Hachiro. After the Japan's surrender in 1945, Turner went to the Togo shrine in Tokyo, which he had visited in that diplomatic mission.

"Standing at the Togo shrine, Admiral Turner made this prescient observation: 'If we play our cards well, the Japanese will become our best and most worthwhile friends. They have certain fundamental virtues in their character, which in time, I hope, will be appreciated by all worthwhile Americans. We should be most careful to respect their gods and their traditions, and I hope they will come in time to respect ours.'"

Records retrieved from the Philippines and made available by the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, as well as interviews and letters, helped Freeman piece together life for Barton as a prisoner of the Japanese. She recites how prisoners were mistreated, how they survived sometimes for years, and how they made tough choices – whether to attempt escape or remain as prisoners and prevent repercussions on fellow prisoners.

Freeman explores the tensions and turmoil of interservice rivalry during the war, with Gen. MacArthur front and center, saying "The Navy fails to understand the strategy in the Pacific." Much of the author's source material comes directly from the MacArthur Memorial Archives.

Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas Adm. Nimitz confers with south Pacific area officers, possibly aboard USS Argonne (AG-31) at Noumea, New Caledonia, Sept. 28, 1942: Army MGen Richard K. Sutherland, Chief of Staff to General MacArthur; (Nimitz); VADM Robert L. Ghormley, Commander South Pacific Force; and USAAF MGen Millard F. Harmon, CO of U.S. Army Forces South Pacific Area. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

Author Sally Mott Freeman

MacArthur bristled under the shared leadership of Adm. Nimitz in the Pacific. Readers will enjoy a fascinating explanation of the command and control relationship in Chapter 14 (pages 174-5). Chief of Naval Operations Adm. E.J. King considered MacArthur a megalomaniac, according to Freeman, a general who rewarded flattery and other sycophantic behavior by his staff. "It is said that a fool flatters himself, but a wise man flatters the fool."

This book shows us many sides of the war – including a family's deep struggle on the homefront during and after the war. This is a highly recommended, multidimensional study of the Pacific War, which was won by superior sea power. "Without sea power," said Nimitz, we would not have advanced at all."

The afterward and epilogue to this book are well-written, well-researched and personal accounts worth reading and re-reading for anyone interested in treatment of POWs and in the way war can affect families.

Sea Power – Mahan to Stavridis 'Top 3'

Review by Bill Doughty

The venerated grandfather or "high priest" of modern naval strategy, Rear Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), foresaw the future of a strong navy as a preeminent force for peace and prosperity.

His "modern" navy called for new coaling stations (such as Pearl Harbor at the turn of the last century), a "canal route through the Central-American Isthmus," and a realization that the sea is a "great highway; or better, a wide common over which men may pass in all directions on trade routes for commerce."

Adm. (ret.) Jim Stavridis's "Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World's Oceans" (Penguin Press, 2017) is written in tribute to a history class of the same name taught by E. B. "Ned" Potter of the United States Naval Academy, centered on the teachings of Mahan. Stavridis writes:

"The basic theory of Mahan's body of work is that national power derives from engagement via the world's ocean along three key vectors: production (which leads to the need for international trade and commerce), shipping (both merchant and naval), and colonies and alliances (spread across the globe, forming a network of bases from which to project sea power). All three of these basic concepts still pertain today, although they need a bit of updating..."

Sailors aboard USS Mahan (DDG 72) conduct line handling May 23, 2017. (MC1 Tim Comerford)

Mahan saw a tough navy as an antidote to war. He recognized the importance of commerce by the seas in a globally connected world. In Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History"(1890), the so-called high priest of maritime strategy cited the French, under Richeleu's protege Minister Colbert, as inspiration. Colbert embraced the three pillars of production, shipping and colonies/markets – "in a word, sea power," according to Mahan.

The world has changed since Mahan's time in ways he could not imagine. Now people understand that there are limits to growth. There are finite non-renewable resources on the planet; renewable resources must be protected. The world is no longer dominated by imperialist colonialism, though some countries, notably China and Russia, still practice revanchism.

Global shipping traffic in 2012.

Stavridis takes us on a personal career-spanning voyage to the world's most important oceans and seas, including the Pacific, "mother of all the oceans" explored by Magellan and Cook and the Atlantic, "cradle of colonization." By the end of his book the personal becomes universal.
He shares advice on various topics, including how to deal with China in the South China Sea, North Korea in the western Pacific and Sea of Japan, Russia in the Arctic and Mediterranean, and radical extremists such as ISIS wherever they appear. Stavridis also examines the world's oceans as a connected common system:

"And it is a busy system indeed. On any given day, it is impossible to accurately measure the number of surface ships at sea, but we can approximate the number of ships generally. By reading through a variety of sources (including Clarksons, the 'bible' of international shipping), it is possible to estimate that there are between fifty and sixty thousand large commercial ships, chemical ships, passenger and roll-on/roll-off ships, and liquified natural gas tankers active throughout the world ... By some estimates there are four to six times more ships plying the world's oceans than there were some thirty years ago."

While the world has learned much about our common and connecting ocean in the past 3,000 years, there are many things we still do not know, "especially about how the oceans function as a coherent system. In a certain sense," Stavridis writes, "we have incredible knowledge of the oceans, but little wisdom about them."

Like Mahan, Stavridis wisely focuses on a top-three – in his case a top-three of threats to the oceans, referred to as "the outlaw sea": piracy, overfishing crimes and environmental damage.

"Piracy and fishing are sadly very significant sources of illegal activity at sea. But the biggest act of criminal behavior being practiced on the high seas is the willful and preventable damage to the environment that goes on every day. Through the destruction of the maritime world, we are literally watching future generations robbed of their birthright. This is stealing from us all, until and unless we can work coherently together to preserve the riches of the sea for mankind's future. This was a guiding premise in the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea three decades ago, but sadly the treaty has not had a sufficient effect on the damage that is unfolding before our eyes."

What are we to do? "At the heart of any approach to the challenges of the outlaw sea is the creation of an enhanced level of international cooperation." The oceans, Stavridis points out, are not a vast, invulnerable dumping ground and an endless source of protein."

A U.S. Coast Guard member prepares to embark an 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boat in preparation for boarding and inspecting commercial fishing vessels as part of Coast Guard’s efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the Pacific during an Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) boarding mission. The LEDET is embarked aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47), deployed in fall of 2017 in support of the Oceana Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI), leveraging Department of Defense assets transiting the region to increase the Coast Guard’s maritime domain awareness and supporting its maritime law enforcement operations in Oceania. (Photo By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kryzentia Weiermann)

With wisdom, nations and sea services take a stand. A bonus at the end of this enjoyable book is this found haiku:

where we stand on a

narrow hull, rolling before

the waves and the wind

"The United States continues on a voyage that is both personal and of vital geopolitical importance," Stavridis writes, "... knowing we are at heart a nation that will forever depend on sea power and our sailors for security and prosperity.

Facing Future with CNO Richardson, former CHINFO Kirby

CNO Adm. Richardson meets with tactics instructors at SNA. (Photo by Lt. Matthew A. Stroup) 

By Bill Doughty

At this week's Surface Navy Association Symposium in Virginia, someone asked Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson what he's reading. 

The CNO reminded the questioner, "Y'know, I actually have a reading list." 

After the crowd chuckled and applauded, the CNO answered that – in addition to the Navy Professional Reading Program list – he has been reading two books that are "future-looking" and not on NPRP. Richardson recommended books that reinforce each other's subjects into a congruent theme.

He suggested "Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future" by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson (W. W. Norton & Company, 2017). The book is a follow up to the authors' "The Second Machine Age." Anyone curious about technological singularity and artificial intelligence will be interested in informed theories about how the world – and the Navy – will change in the decades ahead.

Richardson also recommended "Humility Is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age" by Edward D. Hess and Katherine Ludwig (Berrett-Kohler, 2017). 

Barnes & Noble published a "Humility Is the New Smart" recommendation by former CNO Adm. (ret.) Gary Roughead: “The forces of the Smart Machine Age are already upon us, and like time and tide they cannot be held back. Hess and Ludwig are out front with this insightful, practical, and compelling guide to navigating, transforming, and leading organizations for this new age in which the nature of work and the workforce will be dramatically different.”

Former CHINFO, Pentagon and State Dept. Spokesperson John Kirby.

Discussion at the SNA symposium included a focus on the future and on the importance of humble, confident leadership to counter insecurity and hubris. 

CNO Richardson advised reading about history, especially World War II history. "Read well-written history," he said, "Hornfischer, Toll ... Pick up any book by those folks and start reading."

On Thursday, Jan. 11 at the U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs Symposium at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, keynote speaker Rear Adm. (ret.) John Kirby, former Chief of Navy Information, Pentagon spokesperson and State Department spokesperson, not only recommended two books but also read passages to make his points.

He also is interested in the future – and how the future has already arrived for communicators and the military.

Kirby recommended "War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century" by David Patrikarakos" (Basic Books, 2017) and "Overload: Finding the Truth in Today's Deluge of News" by Bob Schieffer with H. Andrew Schwartz (Rowman &  Littlefield, 2017).

John Kirby, who helped put together former CNO Adm. (ret.) Mike Mullen's Navy Professional Reading Program and shared his own reading list, which we featured on Navy Reads several years ago, is now a commentator on CNN.

Kirby advises: "Read widely, read well."

On his reading list Kirby recommended the best book for writers, the late William Zinsser's "On Writing Well."