A Military Family Enters the White House

Review by Bill Doughty

Military families can experience dark times: Sacrificing months and years apart; feeling the stresses and strains of moves, missions, and memories; and in some cases making the ultimate sacrifice.

Anyone who has lost a loved one can identify with the depth of darkness that is often part of life, especially felt in the pit of winter. Dr. Jill Biden shines a summer light in her beautiful autobiography: “Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself” (Flatiron Books, 2019). Biden, a teacher, is also author of “Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops.”

Dr. Jill Biden at Camp Victory, Iraq, July 4, 2010

Biden, of course, is the incoming First Lady, wife of President-elect Joe Biden. She is also mom of the late Maj. Beau Biden, a veteran of the Iraq War. Beau Biden served in the Delaware National Guard, Judge Advocate General Corps, and 261st Signal Corps in Smyrna, Delaware. After military service, he served as Attorney General of Delaware. Beau died in 2015 after losing his battle with brain cancer. Dr. Jill Biden speaks of a special fraternity shared by those who have experienced the ultimate darkness, the death of a son or daughter:

“Hidden in crowds, scattered throughout workplaces and grocery stores and parks, there is a fraternity of people who’ve lost sons and daughters. To the uninitiated, we look normal, average, whole. But like a secret handshake, I can spot them sometimes –– by the sadness in their eyes or the curve of their shoulders, as if they can still feel the small arms of a child wrapping around their neck. I meet them at speeches and public events. Recently, I was getting my nails done when a woman came up to me and started to cry. I knew before she spoke. ‘I’m a Gold Star mom,’ she said, ‘and I just wanted to show you a picture of my son.’ She pulled a worn memorial card from her purse with his photo on it, and as she cried, people nearby asked uncomfortably, ‘What’s the matter? Is everything okay?’ But there’s no good way to announce to a nail salon, Isn’t it clear? Our sons are gone, and we are shattered.’ I just hugged her instead. And every May, on the anniversary of Beau’s death, she finds a way to get a note to me. One year, she left it with a nail technician who passed it along. She recently came to one of my speeches just to support me. We share a bond that will last forever: two strangers, two mothers, with broken hearts.

“Membership to this fraternity comes with no guide, and I have no advice, no wisdom to dole out to new initiates. A friend of mine lost her son, a firefighter, in a terrible blaze. He was young, with two kids, and they carried his body to the grave wrapped in an American flag. I wanted so badly to offer her words of hope or to tell her it’s going to get better. But I don’t know if that’s true. Instead, I wrote her a note to say I was thinking about her and that she isn’t alone. That’s the truest thing I can say to parents who know this impossible pain: you are not alone.”

Biden educates with warmth and humility about tragedies and sorrows. She writes of victories and hope, joy and light, grit and resilience. 

Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, meets with spouses of U.S. Coast Guardsmen May 3, 2012, during a visit to Coast Guard Station Miami Beach, Florida. Biden took questions as part of the Joining Forces program she created with first lady Michelle Obama. Joining Forces is a national initiative to mobilize all sectors of society to give service members and their families opportunities and support. (USCG, PO3 Sabrina Elgammal)

Writing about her failed relationship and divorce before meeting then-Senator Joe Biden, Dr. Biden describes trying to find herself after feeling she had failed. “I picked up the pieces of my life and tucked them away.”

In a twist of irony, as part of her therapy she blasted a favorite song by the Rolling Stones:

“I smothered my sorrows in long study sessions and buckled down on finishing my degree. I dated men without hoping for much. I let go of fairy-tale endings, and I tried to reconnect with he brave person I used to be. I played my music loud:

‘You can’t always get what you want

But if you try sometimes you just might find

You get what you need.’”

The song was used as part of President Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020 despite complaints and cease-and-desist orders by the Rolling Stones. The song is from the 1969 album “Let It Bleed.”

After meeting and dating then-Senator Biden for more than two years and getting to know each other’s families, Jill finally accepted the last of Joe’s five proposals. Joe’s sons, Beau and Hunter, had told their dad, “We think we should marry Jill.”

She became “mom” to the boys, and she and Joe gave them a sister, Ashley. Now they are proud and loving grandparents.

Dr. Biden speaks with Marine Sgt. James Amos at MCB Camp Pendleton, Jan. 20, 2012. (Cpl. Kayla Hermann)

There is a power in this book about overcoming failed relationships and family tragedies, including the deaths of Joe’s first wife and daughter in a car crash, Joe’s brain aneurism that nearly killed him, elections that didn’t go the Bidens’ way, and of course the death of Beau.

Dr. Biden writes:

“As Walt Whitman wrote, ‘Some people are so much sunlight to the square inch.’ Beau burned so brightly in my life that without him, I felt blinded by the darkness. I felt stuck in that void, unable to move.

“One of my last true prayers was one of desperation, as Beau began to slip away from us, and it went unanswered. Since then the worlds don’t seem to come. The beautiful stained-glass windows I once loved, the warm wooden pulpits, the rich red kneelers –– now I can see only cold colored light that refuses to shine on him, his unspoken Rosary, an empty space at the Eucharistic table … one day I hope I can salvage my faith.”

The book's epilogue shows “where the light enters” for the Biden family.

Dr. Biden’s is a story of balance –– teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, military family –– revealed in a found haiku:

“I’ve learned that Life 

is a balancing act. And 

I am still learning”

As the world prepares for a dark winter due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jill Biden, the teacher, shines a light. Near the conclusion of this enlightening book, Dr. Biden quotes Albert Camus, author of “The Plague,” “The Rebel,” and “Summer”: “In the middle of winter I had at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.”

Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, makes greeting cards for wounded and deployed soldiers with 50 children at a special holiday event at the vice president's residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory, Dec. 1, 2010. (Linda Hosek, DoD)

‘General Naval Tactics: Theory and Practice’

Review by Bill Doughty

Warfighting occurs in a multidimensional, multi-domain universe –– a matrix of possibilities, challenges, and surprises, more art than science. Success in the maritime battle space depends on balancing three components of “the art of war at sea.”

“Naval tactics is one of three components of that art; the other two are naval/maritime strategy and operational art.” The components are interdependent and reliant –– most importantly –– on the human factor. That’s the revelation in Milan Vego’s “General Naval Tactics: Theory and Practice” (Naval Institute Press, 2020), an indispensable book for any commander or naval officer whose goal is to be a senior leader of leaders.

This book presents a nuts and bolts discussion of objectives, methods, and elements of tactics as well as design, leadership, targets, and other vital considerations.

But throughout the discussion, Vego emphasizes the importance of incorporating theory and an understanding of people together with hardware and tactics. “Experience shows that a naval officer is far better prepared to apply tactical doctrine and to use it creatively.” That means having an appreciation of psychology, philosophy, history, and epistemology. “The most common error is an over emphasis on the importance of matériel in naval warfare,” Vego writes, adding that over-reliance on untested technology and mere pockets of information can be dangerous, too.

Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, right, speaks to Sailors after the Cyber Foundry ribbon cutting Feb. 18, 2020. The Cyber Foundry is a development site for some of the U.S. Navy’s cyber-warfare capabilities by combining a modern physical environment, trained and experienced personnel, industry-leading processes and updated technology resources to enable the rapid development of offensive cyber capabilities. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class William Sykes)

Information itself can a weapon. This month, in fact, we learned of cyber attacks reportedly by Russia against the United States. Vego outlines how tactical information warfare is conducted in the cyber warfighting domain and how electronic warfare, psychological operations and operational security are part of tactical protection in information warfare.

“One of the key requirements for effective tactical IW is timely, accurate, and relevant intelligence. Among other things, intelligence support of IW analyzes the enemy C2 [command and control] process and determines enemy IW capabilities. Intelligence supports IW through the collection, evaluation, analysis, and integration of all available information concerning the enemy’s capabilities. Capabilities to collect, evaluate, analyze, and transmit intelligence information have increased exponentially with the development of surveillance sensors, computers, and communications. The overall effectiveness of intelligence support is heavily dependent on all-source, accurate, timely, and relevant intelligence.”

Leaders must also understand the limitations of machines of war and test new technologies under realistic battlefield conditions. Tactical wargaming is indispensable training, according to Vego. An important part of the decision-making matrix is logistics and other forms of command support, including maintenance, defense, and security, among other concerns for any planner or commander. Vego defines and describes various kinds of replenishment.

He presents pros and cons of centralized and decentralized command structures and explains the importance of good communication in C2 and the chain of command. “C2 is not a system or command structure, as often erroneously believed, but the process of planning, preparing, directing, and controlling ones forces in both peacetime and in combat.”

Here again, in senior commanders’ choice of command structures, is the importance of the human factor and finding balance in risk awareness not avoidance.

“Risk avoidance results in over-centralization of C2 and undue interference of the higher commanders in the authority and responsibility of their subordinate commanders. The higher commanders issue overly detailed orders to subordinates to ensure that no mistakes are made. Subordinate commanders quickly realize the dangers of acting on their own initiative. The result is lack of initiative and waiting on orders instead of making quick and independent decisions in the case of a sudden change in the situation.”

Vego presents dozens of examples from history, including surprising ones such as the Battle of the Saintes (1782), Battle of Lissa (1886), and Turko-Greek War (1897).

Crew members aboard USS White Plains (CVE-66) observe Imperial Japanese Navy attack other ships of carrier division 25 in the Battle off Samar, Oct. 25, 1944.

Most of his examples naturally come from the War in the Pacific (1941-1945) and include presentations of strategy, tactics, and operations during the battles of Leyte Gulf, Midway, Savo Island, and Samar, among others, where bold decisions were made by strong leaders.

Good leaders with high intelligence, humility and ethics Vego cites include Adm. Chester Nimitz, Adm. Raymond Spruance, and Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Cunningham (1883-1963), pictured at right. They were “trustworthy and trusting” with strong work ethics and wisdom, able to make good and righteous decisions in wartime.

“Decision-making is more art than science. Sound decision-making requires that a naval tactical commander possesses accurate, relevant, and timely information on all aspects of the tactical, and sometimes even some elements of the operational, situation. As time-space relationships continue to compress and the volume of information expands exponentially, making a sound decision will become progressively more difficult. The naval tactical commander’s ability to ‘see’ the battlefield will be greatly improved, but so will the enemy’s ability to frustrate friendly forces’ plans and actions. New information technologies will reduce, perhaps dramatically, uncertainties regarding the location, composition, movements, and these technologies will penetrate the thick veil surrounding the enemies intentions and the unquantifiable elements of the enemy’s situation any better than in the past.”

“Making sound decision requires quick thinking, focus on the essentials, logical reasoning, common sense, and good judgment.” Naval commanders need selfless courage, agility, creativity and foresight as well as the ability to communicate effectively. “Effective communications has an importance far beyond the mere exchange of information. It builds trust, cooperation, and mutual understanding.”

A five-country multinational fleet, during Operation Enduring Freedom in the Oman Sea. In five descending columns, from the top left to the bottom right: MM Maestrale (F 570); FS De Grasse (D 612), USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74); FS Charles De Gaulle (R 91), FS Surcouf (F 711); USS Port Royal (CG-73), HMS Ocean (L 12), USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), HNLMS Van Amstel (F 831); and MM Durand de la Penne (D 560).

Vego writes, “Any military objective should be balanced (harmonized) with he corresponding factors of space, time, and force.”

Every naval officer can benefit from this book and its advice about balancing multidimensional, multi-domain, nonbinary leadership –– more wisdom than information, more art than science.

‘Twilight of the Gods’ a Toll Masterpiece

Review by Bill Doughty

This 900-plus-page book took some time to read. Not just because of the length, but also because it was so damn good. Parts demand to be read and reread.

Ian W. Toll completes his “unexpected” trilogy of the history of World War II in the Pacific in “Twilight of the Gods: War in the Pacific, 1944-1945” (W.W. Norton, 2020), a book that brings in new archived material, information, and reports, including from former Imperial Japan about their “demented” war and efforts to brainwash their people.

Standouts in the book are the depiction of the kamikaze fighters in the skies and also on land and at sea; the details of fighting in the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa; and the description of military leaders, both American and Japanese.

Here’s his description of Lt. Gen. Kuribayashi, for example:

“In June 1944, two days before U.S. forces had stormed ashore on Saipan, a new commanding general flew into Iwo Jima. Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was a stout man of medium height, aged fifty-three, with a small, trim mustache. He was one of the star officers of the Japanese army, having distinguished himself in staff jobs and in the field. While serving as military attaché in Washington in 1928-1929, he had mastered English and traveled widely through the United States. He had commanded a cavalry regiment at Nomonhan, Manchuria, during the undeclared war between Japan and Russia in 1938-1939. After 1941, he had served as chief of staff of the South China Expeditionary Force in Canton. More recently, he had transferred to Tokyo to command the Imperial Guard, a prestigious posting that brought him into direct contact with the emperor. His new command gave him dominion over the 109th Division and the Ogasawara Army Corps, which included all garrison forces in the Bonin Islands. Upon his departure from Tokyo, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo had instructed Kuribayashi to ‘do something similar to what was done in Attu.’ That amounted to a suicide order: that Kuribayashi must defend the island to the last man.”

The Imperial Japanese Navy built suicide submarines and speedboats and gliders to attack or defend. The civilian populace, even school children, were trained in hand-to-hand combat and told to prepare for “the glorious death of the 100 million.”

That’s another standout theme in this book: the role of the press, propaganda, and psychological operations.

“Twilight” illuminates the importance of truth-telling and the role of the press. There is a thin line between freedom of the press, for example, and fear mongering, censorship, and aiding the enemy. What is in the public interest? How important is national morale? Should the president be concerned about not inciting panic? Will an informed public be more supportive if people are told the truth?

Admiral E. J. King, Chief of Naval Operations, at first wary of the press, quickly saw the value of conducting in-person secret press briefings. He met with reporters over beer and canapés at Nelie Bull’s House to provide context to some of FDR’s, his, and Nimitz’s decisions. In return, he “acquired a fund of goodwill in the Washington press corps.”

That goodwill helped steer Congress away from military unification, in effect putting all military resources under the Army and risking the creation of an overly powerful Pentagon. 

For understandable operational security reasons, Admiral Nimitz and his team in Hawaii were low-key and hesitant to provide information and details of the war.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Meanwhile, across the Pacific, Gen. Douglas MacArthur openly attracted “carefully managed” press coverage, especially stories that matched his version of the facts. “The thicker they laid on the praise and adulation, the more they would be rewarded with exclusive stories and other desirable privileges” by MacArthur’s censors.

“More than any other American military leader of the war, MacArthur understood the importance of visual imagery. He paid diligent attention to the details of his wardrobe and accessories, which cynics called his ‘props’ –– his battered Philippine field marshal’s ‘pushdown’ cap, his well-worn leather flight jacket, his aviator sunglasses, and his corn-cob pipes, which tended to grow larger over time. During his first days in Australia, he had experimented with an ornate carved walking stick, but discarded it after someone remarked that it made him look older. He was sensitive about his expanding bald spot, and when it was necessary to be photographed without his hat, he took a private moment to comb his hair across the top of his head, leaving a perfectly straight part about two inches above his right ear –– a deftly executed version  of the coiffure known as a ‘combover.”

Photography was also censored, and “most published wartime photographs of MacArthur were taken at a low camera angle, making him appear taller than he was,” Toll writes. His press office was accused of “abusing its powers of wartime censorship to indulge MacArthur’s personal vanity.” Toll writes, “MacArthur was a serial confabulator.” The general’s “moonshining” would be called “gaslighting” today.

Toll convincingly shows how Admiral “Bull” Halsey fell for a Japanese ploy to lure him north during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. This, combined with Halsey failure to dodge a typhoon “when there was still time,” paints him with a different brush then the largely media-created image he had during the war. “But until his death in 1959, the proud old fleet admiral fought a losing rearguard action against the hardening judgment of history.”

By contrast, Admiral Mitscher, who led Task Force 58, comes across as a winner, a leader with grace and compassion. Admiral Spruance is depicted as a bit quirky but also a man of great humility and quiet wisdom. Admiral King, Toll contends, was a careful listener who “considered counter-arguments in good faith.” Of course, Nimitz epitomizes humble but strong leadership.

Navy leaders King, Forrestal, and Nimitz

Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, strongly supported both the Navy and Marine Corps, and saw the value of the American press in communicating with the public to garner support for the war effort. With helmet on, he stepped onto the sands of Iwo Jima and witnessed the raising of the American flag on Mt. Suribachi by United States Marines. He told General “Howlin Mad” Smith: “‘Holland, the raising of the flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.’”

“The Navy secretary had been pushing for more fulsome publicity in Nimitz’s theater. He had taken a direct hand in streamlining censorship functions, and had pressured the admirals to guarantee overnight transmission of press copy and photographs to newsrooms in the United States. During his current tour of the Pacific, Forrestal had often reminded the navy and marine brass that an epochal political struggle lay ahead over the organization and unification of the armed services, and the postwar status of the Marine Corps was not yet decided. The “500 years” remark this had a contemporary context and subtext: Forrestal meant that the stirring image would strengthen the corps’ claim to an autonomous role in the postwar defense establishment.” 

“A second and more famous flag-raising (top photo) occurred three hours later, when a subsequent patrol of the 28th Marines carried a larger ‘replacement’ flag to the summit of Mt. Suribachi. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal was on hand to record the scene.”

Forrestal, with Admiral Leahy, would play a key role in streamlining eventual surrender and acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration by the proud but divided Imperial Japanese military government.

Meantime, strong Navy and Marine Corps leadership led to victories across and up the Pacific, and Toll takes readers on a gripping journey in the last year of the war. He provides maps of locations, operations and actions, including: Ulithi Atoll, Surigao Strait, Leyte, Marianas, Operation Iceberg, Operational Olympic, Third Fleet Operations Against Japan, and Yamato’s Last Sortie, among others.

This is Toll’s “you-are-there” quality of writing as he describes the destruction of the hapless IJN battleship Yamato (pictured above, photo courtesy NHHC):

“In a second wave of attacks, beginning about forty minutes after the first, the Yamato took five or six more torpedo hits on her port side, and at least one to starboard. Another exploded against her stern, destroying her rudder post and depriving her of steering. SB2C dive-bombers rained heavy armor-piercing shells down along her topside works, while warms of low-flying Hellcats and Corsairs strafed her remaining antiaircraft batteries. Yoshida recalled ‘incessant explosions, blinding flashes of light, thunderous noises, and crushing weights of blast pressure.’ The destroyers Asashimo and Kasumi were badly mauled, and would either sink or be scuttled. The immobilized Yahagi caught four more torpedoes and seven or eight more bombs. Captain Hara, looking fore and aft, judged that his ship was nearly finished. Whitewater towers erupted as torpedoes exploded against the hull. Bomb blasts ejected debris and bodies into the air. Rivets began popping our of the steel deck plates and the bridge began pulsating under his feet. ‘Our dying ship quaked with the detonations,’ wrote Hara. ‘The explosions finally stopped but the list continued as waves washed blood pools from the deck and dismembered bodies fell rolling into the sea.’”

Japanese mother and child photographed amid the ruins of Tokyo, Japan, September 1945, by visiting crewmen of USS THORN (DD-647), NHHC.

The loss of life in a death cult mentality of extreme nationalism and misplaced patriotism comes across as a crushing tragedy, particularly at the end of the war in the Battle of Okinawa, fire bombing of Tokyo, and world-changing atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The war was prolonged by Japanese “army hotheads” –– hardliners who attempted a last-minute coup. They spread rumors that Emperor Hirohito’s recorded surrender announcement was “faked.” Senior military leaders “wanted peace, but they could not yet face up to the stark reality of their total defeat.”

In a last-ditch effort to stave off defeat, Imperial Japan tried to make a deal with the Soviet Union, but Stalin opportunistically declared war on Japan, attacking Japan-occupied Manchuria (pictured at left) and northern Korea, then setting sights on Japan’s large northern island: “If the Japanese surrender had been delayed by even a few weeks, Japan’s northern island might have passed [like half of Germany] forty-five years on the other side of the Iron Curtain.”

Another standout insight: Imperial Japan’s propaganda campaign to brainwash its own people was hollow because it was based on lies about the American military; American propaganda, on the other hand, aimed at Japanese citizens in the form of radio broadcasts and leaflets over mainland Japan, was heroic in attempting to achieve a peaceful surrender.

“The surprise and relief felt by the Japanese, upon learning that their former enemies were largely decent and honorable, was accompanied by another sensation. With a sudden rush, ordinary Japanese understood how thoroughly deceived that had been by their own leaders. The propaganda was still ringing in their ears –– they could hardly forget it –– but it all seemed demented in retrospect. The Potsdam Declaration had insisted: ‘There must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest,’ and the country must be rid of ‘irresponsible militarism.’ The Japanese people would fulfill that condition on their own, regardless of the policies of their postwar government. The wartime military leadership was held in widespread contempt. These attitudes had been prevalent even before the surrender, though never uttered publicly for fear of repression. Now they came to the surface –– potent, instinctive, deeply held hatred of war, and for those who had plunged Japan into it.”

Occupation of Japan was successful because it was based generally on trust, kindness, and honesty –– to build unity. The result is a democratic government of and by the people where today Japan is a key friend and ally of the United States.

For American warfighters, the end of the war was a time for celebration and healing but also frustration. Most service members had to wait for weeks and months before being able to return from overseas. “Bing Crosby’s ballad ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ played in heavy rotation on the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) –– but now, more than ever before, the melancholy refrain seemed to mock their dilemma: ‘if only in my dreams.’”

Toll’s War in the Pacific trilogy deserves to be on any WWII historian’s bookshelf. It is indeed a masterpiece of harrowing history, well told.

ADM Spruance and VADM Wilkinson walk in Yokosuka, Japan, Oct. 1945.

’Warship Builders’ & Lessons of Pearl Harbor

Review by Bill Doughty

A failure of imagination by Imperial Japan’s military-dominated government led to the attack on Oahu Dec. 7, 1941 after leaders ignored a warning by wise IJN Vice Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku:

“Yamamoto, who had witnessed America’s economic might during his tour of duty as Japan’s naval attaché in Washington during the early 1920s, had warned Japanese warmongers before Pearl Harbor, ‘Anyone who has seen the factories of Detroit and oil fields of Texas knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America.’ Like many observers of the U.S. industrial landscape, Yamamoto neglected to mention America’s shipyards, whose products not only overwhelmed the Imperial Navy but also played a major role in the Battle of the Atlantic and the amphibious landings in the Pacific, the Mediterranean, and Normandy. Their production formats and shop floor practices had little in common with Detroit’s vaunted assembly lines that so impressed Yamamoto and eventually historians of industrial mobilization.”

Author Thomas Heinrich writes a self-described “revisionist” history of the way the United States succeeded in the breathtaking buildup that started even before the war in his new book “Warship Builders: An Industrial History of U.S. Naval Shipbuilding, 1922-1945” (Naval Institute Press, 2020). “Naval expansion coincided with a merchant shipbuilding boom after the outbreak of war in Europe” during the 1930s. It peaked in 1943 and 1944.

Heinrich reveals that rather than relying strictly on cookie-cutter rigid designs and “design freezes,” shipbuilders used innovation, flexible specialization, batch formats, disintegrated production, and skilled and agile labor.

Then-Under Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal with RADM William R. Furlong (right), Commandant of Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, and another officer, meet aboard the capsized hull of USS Oklahoma (BB-37) in the early stages of salvage at Pearl Harbor, 6 September 1942. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. (NHHC)

Also, shipbuilders and government leaders forged public-private relationships and enforced ethical principles and core values to ensure shipyards produced warships on time. Managerial incompetence was dealt with quickly by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, and other senior leaders.

That’s what makes this book relevant and interesting: How did they do it?

USS CASABLANCA (CVE-55), right, about to be launched at Henry J. Kaiser's shipyard, Vancouver, Washington, on 5 April 1943. Two of her 49 sister ships are under construction at left. (NHHC)

Heinrich provides tables, charts, figures, maps and illustrations along with extensive notes. He discusses design and construction, contracting methods, procurement, personnel, engineering, specialization, and welding methods, among other topics.

This book will be interesting to business people, and it is invaluable to anyone connected to Navy and civilian shipyards, ship repair facilities, Navy Supply Corps, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command –– as well as WWII history buffs.

I enjoyed the comparison of American shipyards and shipbuilding methods with those of Great Britain, Germany, and Japan. Heinrich gives a close look at wartime Yokosuka, with its vertically integrated system of five slipways, six dry-docks, shops, foundries, furnaces, and specialty shops.

Mr. Henry J. Kaiser, right, presents President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a model of the escort carriers he is constructing at Vancouver, Washington, 18 March 1943. Kaiser built 50 of these CASABLANCA class carriers CVE-55-104 in 1943-44. (NHHC)

Another fascinating insight was the role of the first shipbuilder named in the book (and mentioned throughout), Henry J. Kaiser, described as “a publicity-savvy construction magnate” who had a frosty relationship at best with U.S. Navy brass, who considered him a “showboat.” Nevertheless, Kaiser delivered hundreds of Liberty ships as part of a public-private partnership.

“Private firms delivered the bulk of the fleet that fought in World War II, but their achievements would have been impossible without massive government assistance. Though shipyards that had survived the interwar years constituted major industrial assets, many had suffered underinvestment into physical plant and shop floor equipment that had to be rectified before builders could begin to construct the two-ocean navy. The federal government responded with a variety of initiatives from tax incentives to direct Navy investments, all of which vastly enhanced the private sector’s ability to construct technologically advanced combatants. Recipients of government largesse included not only shipbuilding firms, but also subcontractors responsible for the manufacture of specialty parts in disintegrated batch production formats.”

Yamamoto’s prediction was right. The United States had not only the resources and capabilities but also the will and the unity to persevere. Heinrich writes, “During the war, American builders delivered eight million tons of naval combatants, more than their British, Japanese, and German combatants combined.” Industry, supported by FDR’s government, was an underpinning of American seapower that led to victory, especially in the Pacific.

On Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2020, the United States is losing nearly the same number of citizens killed by COVID-19 as American sailors, marines, soldiers, and civilians lost on Dec. 7, 1941.

Unexpected lessons in “Warship Builders” are how we can mobilize to build better, using flexibility and agility; how we can demand honesty, integrity and ethical principles in public-private ventures; and how we can come together as one nation, indivisible, in order to defend against –– and defeat –– any enemy.

Above photo: Less than five months from keel-laying to launching ceremony was the record set by SS Patrick Henry, a Liberty Ship, with time reduced to sixty days in the construction of her sister ships of the Liberty Ship design. On 27 September 1941, SS Patrick Henry, the first U.S. Liberty ship, was launched at Baltimore, Maryland. Numerous other vessels were launched on that day, known as "Liberty Fleet Day.”

Top photo: Sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor from the water alongside the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48) during or shortly after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor. USS Tennessee (BB-43) is inboard of the sunken battleship. This is a color-tinted version of Photo # 80-G-19930. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

History Has Its Eyes on – Hong Kong

Review by Bill Doughty––

The soundtrack to Joshua Wong's account of the trials and tribulations in Hong Kong can be found in Lin Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton."

"Unfree Speech: The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now" by Joshua Wong (Penguin Books, 2020) is written by a young man who is "young, scrappy and hungry" and ready to "rise up." He seems to echo Hamilton: "I'm not going to waste my shot."

Wong's is the voice of a boy becoming a man –– a self-described "diehard fanboy" of Gundam, OnePiece, Marvel and DC comics, as well as a student of Gandhi and MLK. He and his close friends Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam (top photo) were sentenced to prison this week by a court in Hong Kong for a pro-democracy protest they held last year.*

Wong offers a brief history of the situation in Hong Kong since the time of the transfer of sovereignty from Great Britain to China, July 1, 1997: The recession in '97, the SARS outbreak in 2002, "misguided housing policies," the National Security Bill, the barring of political organizations, growing demands for more democracy, and the rise of the Umbrella Revolution/Movement.

"The movement didn't happen in a social vacuum. The broken promise of electoral reform and subsequent police crackdown catalysed the unrest, but they didn't cause it. It took decades of pent-up frustration over income inequality, social immobility and other injustices for public anger to finally boil over. Martin Luther King Jr famously said that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor and that it must be demanded by the oppressed. The Umbrella Movement was our way of making our demands heard."

"The movement's symbol, the yellow umbrella, captured both the humility and humanity of the non-violent protesters," Wong writes. From Hamilton: "I was aiming for the sky," "Forgiveness, can you imagine it?" and "Tomorrow there'll be more of us."

As important as the history is Wong's explanation of structure of Hong Kong's government: The Executive is chosen by Communist Party loyalists and controlled by Beijing. The Legislature is not truly representative (two 35-member chambers: GC-geographical, chosen by region, and FC-functional, chosen by Beijing-friendly business and industry. The Judiciary, supposedly independent, is becoming more deferential to the executive, where "the criminal justice system is increasingly used as a political tool to silence dissent."

Voter suppression, election interference and punishment of free speech are hallmarks of Communist China's war on democracy. "Hong Kong is gradually becoming an autocracy," Wong writes. He calls it ominously like Star Wars's "The Empire Strikes Back."

Much of this book, disjointed and rough at times, comes from his diary from prison, both at the Stanley Prison for adults and earlier while at the Pik Uk Correctional Institution for juveniles. He gives a commentary on friends, prison food, entertainment, and hunkering down during a hurricane. Again from Hamilton: "In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet" ... "Blow us all away" ... "Look around, look around" ... "I'll write my way out, overwhelm them with honesty."

Wong describes a "perfect storm" building, and even though this book was published this year, it was before COVID-19 was part of that storm.

Agnes Chow

Wong and many of his fellow protesters, including Lam and Chow, began their activism at a tender age. They venerate earlier freedom advocates such as Ai Weiwei, who writes this book's introduction, and they commemorate the young students killed in the Tiananmen protests and massacre of June 4, 1989.

The cover of the book features a quote from Greta Thunberg: "Together we are one loud voice that cannot be silenced." Young people are at the heart of global calls for freedom and equality. Wong was inspired by Malala's memoir. We're reminded of the young people of Parkland, Florida who sparked a movement for gun safety in the wake of the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 

The subtitle of this book is "The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now."

"From Turkey and Ukraine to India, Myanmar and the Philippines, citizens are pushing back oppressive regimes in defence of their diminishing rights. But nowhere else in the world is the struggle between free will and authoritarianism more clearly demonstrated than here. In the new trans-Pacific cold war, Hong Kong is the first line of defence to stop or at least slow down the dangerous rise of a totalitarian superpower. Like the canary in the coal mine or the early warning system on a tsunami-prone coastline, we are sending out a distress signal to the rest of the world so that countermeasures can be taken before it is too late. As much as Hong Kong needs the international community, the international community needs Hong Kong. Because today's Hong Kong is the rest of the world's tomorrow."

Wong points out Russia's aggression and annexation of Crimea, India's invasion of semi-autonomous Kashmir, and Turkey's military regime's imprisonment of journalists and displacement of millions of Kurds. "Their motivation is singular: self-perpetuation. To consolidate and maintain power," he writes.

Military power is flexed, Wong writes, to impress and intimidate –– and so leaders can remain in power. "Oceans rise; empires fall" ... "The world was wide enough for both."

Ensign Ashley Welker, a Los Angeles native, along with other Sailors, speaks to a tour group visiting Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) during the ship’s port visit to Hong Kong, May 2, 2017. (MC1 Byron C. Linder)

In a call to action, Wong offers a 10-point action plan for civil action. He expresses appreciation to and for the United States and speaks glowingly of the support he received in Washington D.C. In September of 2019 he testified to the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Wong

He received support directly from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Marco Rubio, Rep. Jim McGovern, and Rep. Eliot Engle. Rubio sponsored the "Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act." Pelosi told Wong, "You are an inspiration to young people everywhere. Thank you for your courage and resolve."

As "Hamilton" says, "It must be nice to have Washington on your side."

"Who lives, who dies, who tells your story,” in the words of Lin-Miranda.

Wong and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio

The late U.S. Representative John Lewis personified democracy and called for the "good trouble" as practiced by Wong and friends. Lewis, of course, played a pivotal role in passage of the Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. And he advocated strongly for each reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006.

In the face of voter suppression in some states, the House of Representatives passed Bill HR 1 –– The "For the People Act" in 2019. But "wait for it," as Hamilton intones: HR 1 is still awaiting a vote by the U.S. Senate.

*(Wong was sentenced to 13.5 months in prison; Chow, called the “Goddess of Democracy,” was sentenced to ten months in prison; and Lam received a sentence of seven months for inciting the pro-democracy protest.)