whitehall
Diamond Member
COS George Marshall seems to have a fan base that survived into the 21st century and is still reluctant to examine his conduct on the "Day of Infamy". Marshall was at the top of the military food chain. Commanders in Hawaii had the skilled Navy Intelligence geeks but only Marshall had access to "Magic" and he guarded it to the point that he sacrificed about 3,000 Sailors caught below decks on the Arizona 12/7/41 at 0800 hrs. Legend has it that Marshall disappeared the night before the attack and although he was credited with almost a photographic memory he couldn't recall where he was while his frantic staff was trying to contact him. After an uncharacteristically late arrival at his office he still had hours to warn Hawaii about the decoded message indicating an imminent attack but he read it and re-read it until the Army message board went down. He could have made a phone call but he sent a generic Western Union telegram that arrived about the same time as the Japanese Zeros.