PRAISE 🙌

Happy Independence Day!

I have mentioned it before to some of you before

but I am finally reading the 850 page compendium on Pearl Harbor, At Dawn We Slept, which came out right before I joined the Navy 44 years ago.

Gordon Prange, a professor at one of the Ivy League universities who was fluent in Japanese, made it his life’s work to interview the military survivors (and the planners) on both sides of the Pearl Harbor scenario. I am almost to page 300, where the action finally begins.

For those who love reading about military tactics and strategy, this is amazing. The thoughts of the Japanese as they planned; the thoughts of the Americans as we practiced defense. We had wargamed a Pearl Harbor attack quite a few times before. In the end, we just did not know the timing and the exact objectives. And we had so many assets in the Atlantic that we could not do a 24/7 360 degree patrol around Oahu.

Truth is always a lot calmer than conspiracy theory!

So who else has read this book?