Hello and welcome to the inaugural episode of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War

podcast. My name is Seth Periden, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces

Museum here at Camp Shelby. And with me is my esteemed co-host, retired Navy Captain Bill Toadie,

former skipper of the Fast Attack Submarine USS Indianapolis, as well as many, many posts before

and after that command. How you doing, Bill?

I'm doing well. Thank you, Seth. That's great. I'm looking forward to this. How about you?

Me too. Yeah, really exciting. Excellent. So there are plenty of podcasts that go into every aspect of

every single day of World War II. This show will not do that. At least we'll try to not do that. I think I speak for Bill

here when I say that both he and I like the minutia, you know, the little known facts of stories,

the personalities, both well-known and not so well-known. And that's what we want to bring to the table

here. We want to talk about the aspects of this conflict, this great conflict, that we find interesting.

And in so doing, we'll tear down some of these mythical figures and stories, while at the

same time, we hope to build new ones, not mythical, mind you, but stories and figures that are actually

true. This show, for the most part, will not be a chronological history of the Pacific Theater

of Operations, or PTO, as it was called,

but more of an inviting conversation about topics that Bill and I hold dear or find interesting.

And that being said, we're always open to suggestions.

So if you've got them, send them in.

Without further ado, Bill, let's get rolling.

When discussing the Pacific Theater of Operations for World War II, especially for the United States,

it's imperative that we start at the beginning of our involvement in that conflict, and that, of course,

is Pearl Harbor. And while we'll not go through every step of every day, because that's been done

...