I believe the confusion stemmed from the continuing argument between McArthur and Nimitz as to who was in charge of the Navy in the Western Pacific. Ships tended to get dispatched by the Supreme Command, bypassing the normal channels in the Navy, and the Indianapolis was an example -- the appropriate people did not know when she was due (which is crazy in wartime) and hence there was at least a 48 hour delay in looking for survivors.
One of those things that happens when titanic egos collide (or in this case, flop all over the place screwing things up with everyone else racing around and fixing the mess). Quite a tragedy, but those things happen on secret missions in war time. If you haven't caught on yet, I have no respect at all for McArthur -- the only reason he was in the Phillipines at all was because he'd ordered troops to open fire on the veterans in DC. He and Eisenhower, his deputy commander, were exiled to the endless guerilla war in the Far East as punishment -- Eisenhower more or less redeemed himself, McArthur was left there until he retired, and then was recalled and given command when WWII broke out. A great bungler and general blowhard who's subordinates actually did all the hard strategic work (and no, bypassing Japanese strongholds was NOT his idea, although he claimed credit after the war). Left on is his own we'd probably still be losing the battle in New Guinea. We can also thank him for the current mess in North Korea, because he defied orders and sent forces too close to China, causing them to enter the war and beat the pants off of us. He only ended up in charge there because Joe Stillwell died unexpectedly of stomach cancer -- Vinegar Joe was the real Asian expert (as opposed to the blowhard who's only experience with the "asian mind", as he liked to claim, was his valet. And so the story goes -- sadly, blowhards often get promoted and the people who do the actual work get ignored unless the shit hits the fan, at which point they get to fix the mess and take the blame for the blow-hards mistakes after they get things on an even keel. Happens to me all the time at work..... _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
