THE BOOK IS OUT

America's Navy has had its moments. Its finest hour, in my opinion, is not well-known. As I perhaps have mentioned to you (but who's counting?), in 1944, off Samar, a couple of destroyers, a couple of jeep carriers, some boy scouts, and a loveable dog named Mugsie squared off against the entire Japanese battle fleet and sent them home with their tails between their legs. Well someone has finally written a book about it (Mugsie is unaccountably not mentioned).

The book includes the text of one of the finest opening statements ever given by a military officer (Lt. Comm. Robert Copeland of the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts) to his command:

"This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."

Addendum: Here's a good map of the battle (bottom of page), and a good tactical overview of the climactic moment. Note the location of the destroyer Heerman in the center of the map, face to face with the battleship Hiruma. In destroyer school I think they recommend you not put your destroyer right in front of an enemy battleship. Amazingly, Heerman survived the battle.

[By some contrast in the way of desperate personal heroism, among the Navy's more recent accomplishments was the successful submarine attack on Afghanistan. -PWP]