Nostalgia & History > Admiral Nimitz

Just reading Pacific Crucible by Ian W Toll a book of the Pearl Harbor era.
Toll tells a story of Chester Nimitz who had been working day and night at the Navy Department in Washington since the Pearl Harbor attack. Several weeks later he was appointed to relieve Admiral Kimmel as CinC Pacific Fleet. Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy had arranged air transport to California to connect with a seaplane to Hawaii.
Nimitz felt exhausted and needed some recuperation. He refused air and insisted on rail to California for some much needed R&R.
He took the Capitol Limited to Chicago where he connected to the Super Chief. His aide was instructed to administer two shots of whiskey every night before dinner to the Admiral. Nimitz eventually arrived San Diego where he took the seaplane to Pearl.
Must have been effective since he commanded in the Pacific for the rest of the war.

My son just got off the nuclear carrier "Nimitz", he was the safety officer. We were out in Seattle this time last year, and it had been doing sea trials to San Diego and back after a re-fuel and overhaul. The day before it went back out again, he took us on a 4 hr tour of the ship. My son is a Cmdr with about a year left, and he's been transfeered to Pensacola to finish up his career.

Another, maybe even better, book about the great Admiral is: "NIMITZ" By E.B.Potter. Published by the Naval Institute Press, in 1976.

LocoPilot750 Wrote:
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> My son just got off the nuclear carrier "Nimitz",
> he was the safety officer. We were out in Seattle
> this time last year, and it had been doing sea
> trials to San Diego and back after a re-fuel and
> overhaul. The day before it went back out again,
> he took us on a 4 hr tour of the ship. My son is a
> Cmdr with about a year left, and he's been
> transfeered to Pensacola to finish up his career.

My daughter currently stationed Pearl. Still has another 7 to go.
Safety Officer on that ship has to be a big job.

HotWater Wrote:
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> Another, maybe even better, book about the great
> Admiral is: "NIMITZ" By E.B.Potter. Published by
> the Naval Institute Press, in 1976.


Have not read that one but have never seen the railroad story before.

prrmpup Wrote:
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> HotWater Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Another, maybe even better, book about the
> great
> > Admiral is: "NIMITZ" By E.B.Potter. Published
> by
> > the Naval Institute Press, in 1976.
>
>
> Have not read that one but have never seen the
> railroad story before.

That "railroad story" is covered in the E.B.Potter book, and even explains that the Admiral traveled under an assumed name, as I recall. The Potter book goes into great detail, and he even interview the admiral and reviewed his "papers" many times.

Admiral Nimitz would've departed on the Capitol Limited from Washington Union Staiton at 5:45 PM, arriving at Chicago the
next day, at 0830.

The May 1941 B&O timetable shows the usual sections, bedrooms and compartments, with 1 drawing room available, I'm sure
the Navy reserved the DR for the Admiral, likely acquring a similar accomodation on the Chief for the rest of the trip...

Did the admiral travel with an entourage, or was he alone?

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Did the admiral travel with an entourage, or was
> he alone?

Just with one "Aid". He wanted to be incognito.

LocoPilot750 Wrote:
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> My son just got off the nuclear carrier "Nimitz" . . .

N ever I magined M yself I n T his Z oo . . . :-)

Bad_Iron Wrote:
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> LocoPilot750 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My son just got off the nuclear carrier "Nimitz"
> . . .
>
> N ever I magined M yself I n T his Z oo . . .
> :-)


I did 17 years total in the Navy and I was stationed on the Nimitz for my last 3 years to finish my 20 for retirement. I was only on it for 6 months when I broke my right leg in an accident aboard ship. Needless to say, I was transferred back to shore duty again and was retired early. I like to tell my friends that it was the "BEST broken leg a guy could ever get!". God, the duty was bad and the moral was in the bilges!

HotWater Wrote:
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> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Did the admiral travel with an entourage, or
> was
> > he alone?
>
> Just with one "Aid". He wanted to be incognito.

Thanks.

The good old days before a posse of assistants.

Posted from Android

it's spelled AIDE

chiefe7 Wrote:
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> it's spelled AIDE


Wonder why the vaunted spell check didn't catch THAT?

chiefe7 Wrote:
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> it's spelled AIDE

Aide-de-camp, another term borrowed from the French army.

Why didn't the U.S. borrow terms from successful, disciplined, effective armies?

Posted from Android

HotWater Wrote:
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> chiefe7 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > it's spelled AIDE
>
>
> Wonder why the vaunted spell check didn't catch
> THAT?

Aid is in the dictionary, so spell check wouldn't flag it for context.

Posted from Android

The other typo that jumped out at me -
'moral' probably should be 'morale'.
Typos just jump off of the page at me; I've worked in the graphics/printing arena far too long.
...Lorenzo

567Chant Wrote:
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> The other typo that jumped out at me -
> 'moral' probably should be 'morale'.
> Typos just jump off of the page at me; I've worked
> in the graphics/printing arena far too long.
> ...Lorenzo

Except,,,,,,I, and probably everybody else, knew what he was talking about! Besides, I though Todd had a policy of NOT "correcting" spelling nor grammar, on TO.

OK, off topic, and for those interested; according to E.B.Potter's book "NIMITZ":

"Flag Secretary Lamar (NOT 'Aide') arrived (at Nimitz' home) with a car and driver. Captain Shafroth had ordered Lamar to accompany Nimitz on the train, and the Navy Surgeon had instructed him to consider himself the admiral's head keeper and nurse for the next few days. Lamar was to see that Nimitz ate and slept properly, and he was to try, at least for the first day or so, to keep his boss's mine off his coming responsibilities. The Lieutenant was also advised to pick up a couple of bottles of whiskey and make sure the admiral got two good slugs as a relaxer each evening before dinner."

"On instructions from the White House, both the Lieutenant and the admiral were to travel incognito in civilian clothes. Nimitz decided to call himself 'Mr. Freeman', using his wife's maiden name. Lamar chose to be 'Mr. Wainwright', after Rear Admiral John Drayton Wainwright, whom he admired."

Thanks to everyone for sharing these very interesting historical stories.