A very good book indeed. Halsey should have been court marshaled for leaving his assignment of protecting the landings.
From “The Hunt for Red October”
Captain Ramius: [to Ryan] What books?
Jack Ryan: [confused] Pardon me?
Captain Ramius: What books did you write?
Jack Ryan: I wrote a biography of, of Admiral Halsey, called “The Fighting Sailor”, about, uh, naval combat tactics...
Captain Ramius: I know this book!
Captain Ramius: Your conclusions were all wrong, Ryan...
Captain Ramius: ...Halsey acted stupidly.
Baloney. He was a hunter and was being aggressive. Standing by off the beach makes carriers great sub targets. Armchair admirals expect things to always go their way... they don’t in real life.
If you wanna go a level deeper, we shouldn’t habe been landing there at all. We only did because MacArthur prevailed on FDR that we had to go back. The Nimitz plan would have bypassed PI and ended the war much faster.