Re: U.S. Navy taking on pirates, sort of

On Mar 30, 11:47 am, "TMOliver" <tmoliverjr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Jack Linthicum" <jacklinthi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote ...



IIRC The CNO, "Betty" Stark, did not include Hawaii in his list of
possible targets, "Phillipines, Thailand, Kra or Borneo" but not
Hawaii. Open-ended bureaucratic blather accompanied by actual
locations is not a cry to arms. Anyone who has heard the usual ass-
covering sort of "orders" recognizes them as just that.

I agree, but the long history of the implementation of the strategic
doctrine of CYA suggests that inherent in any ass-covering
messages/directives are hints for commanders down to the most basic level to
follow suit in covering their own asses and commands.

I suspect that the general public has never quite appreciated CYA, and some
of the later weeping and gnashing of teeth over the harshness of the
treatment of Kimmel and Short arose because of a lack of understanding of
their joint and separate failures, to have sense enough to cover their
collective asses and pass on down to the next level a hint to cover....

In Kimmel's defense, the NSFO stocks at Pearl, the 1941 equivalent of OPTAR
in PACFLT, and the problem of already excess usage and shortage of available
charterable tankers on the West Coast may have helped convince him not
undertake a level of readiness which would cause ships to burn fuel.

But even had the maximum possible ass-covering been undertaken at nearly
every level, the US Navy, Army and Army Air Corps in both the Philippines
and at Pearl were so desperately unprepared and possessed such a marginal
capacity to effectively react that eve "armed and alert" the results may not
have been much different.

Playing "what if" is always dangerous, but hypothecate that the Hawaiian
Isles are simply tropical paradises ringed by coral and with no military
bases or potential for use. Put the old BBs up in Bremerton or San
Francisco with the carriers operating from the same port for a big FLTEX.
***, Yamamoto would find a couple of extra oilers and sail farther...(and
there would have been some 2LT on an just-installed radar set up out on the
Faralons unsure about all those blips - must be B-17s being delivered from
Renton). Now if it had been the Seattle area, I'd not be as confident that
the pride of the IJN's flight decks could have all made it through the
weather and across the Olympic peninsula, and ready to muster smartly. One
of the least noted and under-reported accomplishments of IJN air at Pearl
Harbor but managing to get all those two waves of a/c on target on time with
little or no radio communications except in the "command" a/c. We never
hear much about the Japanese Flag Navigator whose dawn fix must have been
quickly plotted as a very small triangle and accurate enough to reduce the
chances of missing Oahu in the morning haze (and back then folks did miss
Oahu routinely. With radio silence and the likelihood that the strike and
element commanders were already in their a/c, the flag's position would have
to have been relayed between carriers by flashing light, the transferred to
chalkboards, so that some JO could race out on the flight deck of each ship
waving a sign with the target bearing boldly chalked (and woe to he who
forgets declination and variation).

There used to be a legend about that the first strike's leader had used one
of the Honolulu commercial radio stations to DF his way to the
target....True or legend?

TMO

Just remembered a very useful version of CYA for use by at sea
commands only. It's called UNODIR, unless otherwise directed. Usually
delivered via radio as a part of a sitrep in a situation where
individual discretion might clash with command prudence.

UNODIR, or "UNless Otherwise DIRected" is a military acronym used to
describe the practice of not checking with the officers in command
whether it is acceptable to do what you want to do. Instead, you
simply file a report outlining what you'll do and drop it into the
bureaucratic apparatus, stamped UNODIR. The nature of red tape is such
that there is almost no chance of anyone seeing your report until it
is way too late.
.

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