This is CBSI in the world with Craig Simons, Professor Craig Simons, U.S. Naval Academy

Emeritus Professor of History.

The book is Nimitz at War, command leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay,

the decision of the flag officers.

Gormley has struggled to provide for the U.S. Marine Corps on Guadalcanal,

which is being overwhelmed again and again by attacks mostly at night by the Japanese.

However, the Japanese, and the Japanese mean to dislodge them, mean to, early on, the Japanese

were fighting a war of attrition,

believing the Americans would wear out, and they would settle this war with negotiations,

some fantastic version. However, there's no patience said by Ernest King. So Nimitz makes a command

decision to replace Gormley with Halsey. Why, Professor? Well, I think that Nimitz

believed he had given Gormley every chance. He visited Gormley in Numae. Nimitz had, in fact,

personally flown to Gwadal Canal, met with Vandigriff, walked the lines, awarded Vandigriff with a

medal in this bunker, decided that Guadalcanal could be held.

Now remember, Guadalcanal is a large island.

The Marines are actually holding a small little footprint around the airstrip, and the Japanese have the rest of the island and the Japanese are hammering

at those lines almost daily and the Marines are holding out they never give way they hang on to

that airfield but at any given moment it looks like the Japanese who are increasing their the

size of their forces on Guadalcanal might in fact overwhelm that small enclave. And Nimitz is worried

enough about that, that he thinks somebody more proactive, somebody, and better health is needed

to rescue those circumstances. So he agonizes over this. But once Halsey is recovered from the

skin disease that kept him out of the Battle of Midway and becomes available, Nimitz perceives that Halsey and Halsey's attitude in particular is what is needed at Guadalcanal.

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