I just returned from eight days on Sand Island, Midway Atoll. It was my second trip…was out there 10 years ago when Ballard found the Yorktown. Today the US Fish and Wildlife Service run the place and have made it pretty much impossible for the public to get there. Most of all of the WWII Navy base buildings are gone and the tree huggers want to get rid of the rest of it. Still, there’s something about the place that is haunting. According to the biologists, some of the albatross on island may have actually been alive during the June 2 42 attack…hard to imagine, but their are a couple million birds hanging around. The best book I’ve read on Midway was by the official Navy historian Prang- “Miracle at Midway”. The signal intelligence/code breaking part of the story is really intriguing and is what allowed the US fleet to be on station waiting for the Japs. In post #86, John B mentioned Admiral Maurer. I had the good fortune to buy the Admiral’s house in Lanikai, Hawaii back in the mid 90′s. When tearing out a wall, I found several old B&W photos of the Admiral at his office ..maybe late 30′s or early 40′s when he was a Commander…could have been Submarine HQ in New London, CT?. What was notable is that there wasn’t even a phone on his desk, just an intercom. Amazing that we were so technically poor then and ramped up so fast to win the war. How is it that we are now led by jabbering clueless buffoons, who as Jim Cramer says “Know Nothing!