I think we can all be grateful that West Point declined Nimitz's application; it's hard to imagine he could have accomplished so much had he been an Army officer.
I had read PT-105, by Dick Keresey. He described how terrified he and the other PT skippers were about running aground, both because of the danger from the enemy as well as from the court-martial when they returned.
The saddest story of a court-martial, of course, would probably be that of Captain McVay (USS Indianapolis); he took his own life in 1968 after what was nothing more than a Navy search for a scapegoat for an enormous loss of life in the closing days of the war.
I agree 100%. It was a terrible shame about Capt. McVay. Terrible. He did not deserve that treatment. My father would occasionally make a reference to having to fall on your sword for the good of the service, and my mother’s Italian-Armenian eyes would flash with real anger. She hated that concept, “for the good of the service”. I suspect it was what she had seen happen to men like Capt. McVay, and it really ate at her.
I admit, that when I heard that he had been officially exonerated, I shed tears. Even now, writing this, I feel emotion about that. Such an injustice to a man, who by all accounts, was a sterling officer. IIRC, even the Japanese sub skipper they brought in to testify said that zig-zagging wouldn’t have made any difference...shame. What a shame.
In my line of work, I have had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with veterans (having grown up in the military and served, you ask two questions all the time: where are you from, and did you serve? My wife laughs at these questions...)
Anyway, I would often get to spend several hours speaking with them, and I spent just such a time interval with the man who was the ship’s doctor aboard the USS Indianapolis when she was sunk.
It left a deep impression on me, that after 50 years, his face turned red and he was unable to speak about certain aspects...one being that, even until the day we met, he was unable to recite or even listen to The Lord’s Prayer.
Astonishing. But, not surprising, given what he went through. My heart went out to him right there. To have that to carry around his entire life, as so many of our vets do, really got me right to the core.