THE ROUNDTABLE FORUM
Official newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable
"To promote awareness and understanding of the great battle and to
honor the men who fought and won it."
21 May 2006....................Issue No.
2006-21......................Our 9th Year
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AROUND THE TABLE ...............................................
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MEMBERS'
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE
1. New Book on Joseph Rochefort
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"NEW BOOK ON JOSEPH ROCHEFORT"
Ed. note: I'm pleased to report that one of our members has
undertaken a very serious book project, a biography of CDR Joseph Rochefort,
the mastermind of the Combat Intelligence Unit at Pearl Harbor that gave
Admiral Nimitz the Japanese operations plan for their Midway assault. I'm
unaware of any in-depth writings on the life and wartime accomplishments of
Rochefort, one of the two most important men responsible for victory at Midway
(the other being Nimitz himself, per a 2003 Roundtable survey). For that reason,I
think the entire Roundtable and everyone with an interest in the history
of U.S. naval intelligence will await Elliott Carlson's new book with
eager anticipation.
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19 May 2006
From: Elliott
Carlson ecarlson3849@comcast.net
I’ve been a newspaper-magazine writer and editor for 40-plus years, retiring in
2004. I decided then to indulge my long-time hobby: the Pacific
War, inspired in part by my old college professor, Paul Dull, and two years in
Honolulu working as an editorial writer on the Honolulu Advertiser. I
think I really got bit by the bug in Honolulu.
Rochefort struck me as a natural subject and I was amazed nobody
had written his biography. Since embarking on this project two-plus years
ago, I’ve received enormous help from Navy people, scholars, and family
members. Rochefort’s daughter, Janet Elerding, loaned me all his
remaining papers, not to mention a scrapbook of photos that haven’t appeared
anywhere else.
The Rochefort
collection is modest. Rochefort destroyed many of his papers after the
war. His remaining papers fit in a strong box he maintained for
years. But Janet essentially gave me the strong box to use as I see
fit. And she’s granted me a half-dozen interviews on her father.
Besides my good
fortune in meeting Mac Showers and making contact with Phil Jacobsen, I’ve
interviewed Tex Biard (I flew out to Dallas for our conversation) and about a
dozen yeomen and radiomen who either worked in the basement with Rochefort or
in the Station H network during 1941-42 (that is, Heeia and Lualualei).
And one gentleman from Station Cast, Duane Whitlock (who else!). And I’ve
interviewed a couple of dozen historians and experts of one kind or
another. Of course, I have many more to go.
In addition, I’ve gone
through dozens of letters and papers of the foreign language officers at the
Boulder archives, the Safford-Hiles material at Laramie, and Edwin Layton’s
papers at the Naval War College, to mention just some of the collections I’ve
pursued.
In the course of all
this I’ve come up with some fascinating material on Rochefort. I’m
finding he was a whole lot more complicated than popular depictions make him
out to be. Happily, I’m also finding him an endlessly absorbing
character, not an easy man to capture on paper but never boring. I hope
you find the resulting manuscript worth the wait--I obviously have a great deal
more to do.
I greatly appreciate
your interest. I’ll stay in touch.
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HEAR THIS! ..................................................
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NEWS
& INFO IN THIS ISSUE
--Final
Muster for Dan Kaseberg
--Forum
Notes
--TV
This Week
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FINAL MUSTER FOR DAN KASEBERG
With deep regret, I announce the passing of another of our Roundtable BOM
veterans. Willis D. (Dan) Kaseberg, a former
Y3/c (yeoman, or squadron clerk) with VT-3 aboard the Yorktown,
departed on his final sortie on Sunday, May 7th. Dan was one of the
Roundtable's most active and energetic contributors from its earliest days
nearly nine years ago. He developed his own comprehensive Midway and Yorktown
web sites long before we had one of our own, and you can still find them
at.....
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=6&uid=488527&
http://community-3.webtv.net/loisdan/center6MEMORIESUSS/
They are also linked at the bottom of our Roundtable home page, http://www.midway42.org.
If
you haven't reviewed those pages lately, perhaps now is an especially good
time. There are many resources worth downloading, and you may not have
the chance much longer.
Also, Chris Hawkinson's Midway web site has a very fine wartime biography of
Dan. Please check it out at...
http://www.centuryinter.net/midway/veterans/dankaseberg.html
Fair winds and following seas to our good friend and Yorktown shipmate,
Dan Kaseberg. His name has been added to the honored remembrance
list on our Roundtable Veterans Roster, http://www.midway42.org/roster_vets.html
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FORUM NOTES
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Welcome aboard to new member Ron Harrison, who resides in
Florida. Ron advises that his father, G. C. Harrison, was a crewman
aboard ENS Gaylord Propst's PBY (24-P-11), one of the four that made the
night torpedo attack on the occupation force on 3 June 1942. And note
that Ron is the 299th current member of the Roundtable--we've grown a lot in
the past year.
~
My apologies to all for the brevity of this issue, but work on the 64th
anniversary event on June 3rd plus some compelling family matters have used up
most of my available time in recent days. My wife will be undergoing
major surgery next Friday, which will further complicate my calendar.
Nonetheless, I expect a more normal Forum will be out to all at this
time next week.
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TV THIS WEEK
Here are television listings of possible interest for the period
of May 22 - 29 (eight days). The times shown
below may not be the same in your area--be sure to check your local guide.
Channels:
AMC = American Movie Classics
DC
= Discovery Channel
HC
= History Channel
FNC
= Fox News Channel
PBS
= Public Broadcasting System
TCM
= Turner Classic Movies
Note:
"12:00 AM" means midnight at the start of the indicated date
(0000 hours). "12:00 PM" means noon.
Tuesday, May 23
12:00 PM (HC) Battle History of the Navy: Fire and
Water
6:00 PM (HC) Battle History of the Navy: Fire and
Water (repeated)
Thursday, May 25
12:00 PM (HC) Battle History of the U.S. Marines:
Tragedy to Triumph
6:00 PM (HC) Battle History of the U.S. Marines:
Tragedy to Triumph (repeated)
11:00 PM (HC) Codes (All about communications
encryption, including a little re WWII)
Friday, May 26
3:00 AM (HC) Codes (repeated, see above)
12:00 PM (HC) The Fighting "I" - the
Story of the USS Intrepid
6:00 PM (HC) The Fighting "I" - the Story
of the USS Intrepid (repeated)
Saturday, May 27
12:30 PM
(TCM) Stand By For Action (1942)
2:30
PM (TCM) Torpedo Run (1958)
4:15 PM (TCM) The Fighting SeaBees (1944)
Sunday, May 28
12:30 AM (TCM) The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)
4:00 AM (TCM) Men of the Fighting Lady (1954)
9:30 AM (TCM) They Were Expendable (1945)
11:45 AM (AMC) Guadalcanal Diary (1943)
1:45 PM (AMC) A Wing and a Prayer (1944)
Note: great wartime BOM film.
2:30 PM (TCM) Task Force (1949)
Note: excellent BOM segment.
8:00 PM (TCM) The Flying Leathernecks (1951)
10:00 PM (TCM) The Flying Tigers (1942)
Monday, May 29
4:15 AM (AMC) A Wing and a Prayer (1944)
Note: see the review on our web site.
8:00 AM (HC) The Color of War: Into the
Breach (early WWII military training)
8:15 AM (TCM) Bataan (1943)
10:15 AM (TCM) Back to Bataan
(1945)
2:00
PM (HC) The Color of War: Into the
Breach (repeated, see above)
5:00 PM (TCM) In Harm's Way (1965)
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For a glossary of abbreviations, acronyms, and terms
used in The Roundtable Forum, click the following URL or go to our home page
and click "The Roundtable Glossary" link.
http://www.midway42.org/glossary.htm
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