It is the Anniversary this morning and the memories flood back. They were new for us then, a shared recollection of a Naval battle that stands with Trafalgar and a few others in the history of of wars fought on the waters. It started when my disparaging remarks about General Douglas Macarthur came to the attention of Rear Admiral Mac Showers. It was a clear violation of Admiral Nimitz’ First Rule of the Pacfic War, which was to not start things that would be trouble with the General’s Staff. That led to a much longer thread of conversation in which we jotted notes on bar napkins, some of which surround us now.

Long story short, it was about the nature of Luck. It became apparent that he had never been destined for anything like the illustrious career he lived. It was completely by chance that he was selected to go to the six-week investigations course at Seattle after commissioning on 12 September of 1941. That was before the attack on Pearl and the changing of a world.

The 90-wonder course in Chicago was intended to produce Deck Officers for the growing Fleet, and it was complete chance he did not get orders to a ship, as most did. Some of them had enough time after commissioning to arrive at their first duty stations in Hawaii to die under the Japanese bombs.

The December 7th attack happened just after he completed the investigations course. He served briefly in the Public Affairs Office (PAO) in Seattle. His duties included resettling Alaskan families in the Pacific Northwest, due to the threat of war. And then it began in earnest.

All the Ensigns immediately were given orders west with all the other Ensigns. Half were assigned to the 16th Naval District, the other half to the 14th. Dumb luck, or it could have been alphabetic order.

The 16th Naval District is in Manila. The kids who got those orders took the train down the coast to the Sea Port of Embarkation (SPOE) at San Francisco to the Philippines, and arrived just in time to proceed directly from the docks at Manila into Japanese prison camps.

Some of them lived. Dumb luck.

Mac got orders to the 14th Naval District in Honolulu. It was a different Hawaii then. There was no Waikiki in those days; that was just a swamp west of Downtown. He was billeted in the YMCA near Hotel Street and the Aloha Tower where the Matson Liners landed. The day after arrival, he walked in the soft breeze amid the scent of flowers from the Y to report to the District Intelligence Officer as ordered.

The District Intelligence Office was in a hotel the Navy had requisitioned to accommodate wartime needs, and Mac was startled to note that the DIO wore two pearl-handled pistols on his belt due to his perceived threat of domestic Japanese terrorists.

“The guy was a regular Cowboy,” said Mac. “He got right to the point, too. He asked me how much field investigation experience I had. I told him I had successfully completed the six-week course in Seattle, but otherwise had none. The Cowboy positively fumed.” Mac chuckled, remembering the interview.

“The Cowboy said “I need men with experience, and you are worthless to me.” Mac said he rocked back in his chair and the pearl handles of the pistol poked out. “He said he had a billet out at the Shipyard he had not been able to fill since he needed all the experienced help downtown. Then he said he had just found someone he didn’t need.”

Next morning, Mac had orders to the Shipyard, and found Station Hypo in the basement of the Administration Building, near the bustle of the recovery efforts to salvage the stricken ships that leaned crazily at the piers or had capsized at their berths in the harbor.

By noon, Mac found himself reporting to a Navy Commander named Joe Rochefort, one of the small handful of men who understood radio, codes and the Japanese language. His little unit made critical breakthroughs on the Japanese JN-25 code system, but it came at a cost.

Mac was put to work immediately, experience or no. As mid-1942 approached, FRUPAC was literally under the gun. There were periods of round-the-clock work on intercepted messages, and of Commander Rochefort working in his bathrobe. Hal Holbrook played Rochefort in the movie “Midway,” appearing for briefings at the CINCPACFLT HQ up at Makalapa Crater late and disheveled.

Mac had been working there about three months when the frantic effort climaxed with the decryption of enough JN-25 traffic to understand the objective of the Japanese attack. Washington thought the Japanese were headed for Alaska, and in fact a diversionary was intended to go that way. Washington had it wrong, and that was going to be the basis of animosity and jealously that would last decades. Washington hates to be wrong.

The main body of the Japanese Navy was going to strike and seize Midway Island, and establish a bastion that could threaten the Hawaiian Islands.

Rochefort, with Fleet Intelligence Officer Edwin Layton, convinced Nimitz that Midway Island was the real objective. In an act of serene confidence, the Admiral gambled on the ambush that resulted in the Battle of Midway, 4-7 June, 1942. In the fight, the Japanese lost four carriers and most of their skilled naval aviators.

It is generally agreed to have been the turning point of the Pacific War.

Mac eventually transferred from FRUPAC to be Eddie Layton’s assistant, and deploy forward to Admiral Nimitz’ forward HQ at Guam. With the help of his Boss, Mac made a visit to Yokosuka Naval Base, from which the Imperial Navy ships had departed to strike Pearl four years before.

He was awarded the Bronze Star for his work with the code breakers. It was all just dumb luck that he was not in the half of his class that reported direct to be prisoners of the Japanese.

LT John Paul Stevens finished up his time at FRUPAC, which had moved from the basement at the shipyard to the temporary building in back of the PACFLT Headquarters. He demobilized and got on with his life as a lawyer. As it turns out, he did pretty well.

Mac stayed in the Navy, and joined the people at Langley after he retired. He still is occasionally in touch with his wartime buddy, and told me when I dropped him off that he would ask him how he was going to enjoy retirement.

I smiled. I said: “We need to get together again soon. I have some questions I want to ask you. Was it all just dumb luck?

“You don’t know the half of it, Vic,” said Mac. “I would be happy to get together. There are a couple things I would like to get straight.” Then he turned and walked briskly into the lobby.

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com