>> you have what looks like -- it looks pretty old, the book itself i meant. >> i am sometimes hard on books because i read them on the beach and outside in the weather and terrain and something like that. >> i'd realize there is a halberstam and david mccullough over here that looks pretty warm. >> as i say i am a little hard on books. kipling, it wasn't a letter a person but was a chemical engineer and utility executive. when i was born, he bought me the complete works of kipling when i was born. [laughter] it took me some years to get into it but plan was a journalist, too, so i enjoyed kipling and i liked his poetry very much. things people would call doggerel, but i enjoyed it. i also liked poetry in college very much, t.s. elliott particularly and the modern poets and john donne of the metaphysical poets and the 17th century. >> are people surprised when they learn how you like poetry? >> i don't tell many people that. there is one episode in the book where i met ezra pound just as he was getting out of the as an asylum in washington and he gave me some advice. he said if i was going to stay in journalism above all avoid too much accuracy. [laughter] >> finally i want to ask you about the english biographer's you have specifically paul johnson and martin gilbert. you have a series of their books. >> martin culbert of course he has written so much on the holocaust and the genocide which is one of the great stories of our time, and he wrote the multivolume biography of winston churchill as you probably know, churchill it was supposed to be written by randolph churchill and i believe he got through to books and he died, and i turned it over to gilbert, which was i think turned it into a much more orderly work and much more complete, i think until burton did a great job. paul johnson is one of the great conservative people often ask me for my christmas list and i give them the golden oldies, with coal to meet kuhl whitaker chambers, paul johnson. >> will there be another book? >> well, i'm only 76 and i can't believe it is my wife's book. i have not ever written a novel after my bad experience in college, and going on in my head for about 20 years on a novel, the name of it is the mercenary a political novel, and it's based -- it would be based on the experience of first mons felled during the war and i don't know if i will ever write that or not. >> so there is nothing yet on the laptop. >> not a word. >> robert novak, thank you. >> robert novak recently retired from his syndicated column inside report. he was the author or co-author of five books including completing the revolution. he was a political commentator for cnn for 25 years and was recently contributor for fox news. mr. novak died august 18th after a battle with brain cancer. he was 78. in a done like thunder the true story of torpedo squadron eight, former congressman robert tells the story of a little-known torpedo squadron that helped change the course of the war in the pacific by the actions in the battle of midway and guadalcanal. the program hosted by the navy memorial in washington, d.c. lost about one hour. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the united states navy memorial and heritage center and the president's room here at the naval heritage center. i am admiral buchanan, president of the navy memorial and we are very pleased to have all of you with us this evening for this wonderful book signing and presentation by bob and we certainly look forward to hearing from many stories he will be able to tell about the torpedo squadron eight folks and answer many of your questions. this is the national launch of little, brown, and company new book, "a dawn like thunder" and the true story of torpedo squadron eight and of course we are pleased to have the book's author robert nas-daq here with us to share the harvick story of this fable and fliers and television audience of c-span's book tv. we are pleased at the navy memorial and navy heritage center to host authors on a regular basis to tell the stories of the men and women who served in the greek navy, and this is a special privilege this evening to continue that tradition. congressman from new york's third district after graduating from cornell in 1967 he joined the navy. he served in u.s. house of representatives from 1983 to 1993. his important work in the house include offering legislation the preserve alaska so national forest and saved the manassas battlefield. he also wrote the admiration homecoming act which brought home the children of american personnel of vietnam and the national film preservation act which established the federal film registry in the library of congress. following his retirement from congress he served ten years as the co-founder and chairman of the alaska wilderness league. mr. mrazek is the author of three novels including stone walls gold, which won the 1999 michael strop prize for best of the year. in 2007 his world war to mothball the deadly embrace one the way boyte prize for excellence in military fiction from the american library association. his books have been published in 14 countries around the world. he lives in upstate new york and maine. please join me in welcoming robert mrazek to the navy memorial. [applause] >> thank you, rick and all for coming. i do have to clarify something. my co-author actually of the legislation to save the manassas battlefield is here tonight so he i am sure would have been upset with me if i didn't mention he was the one that actually showed me the article in "the washington post" that the developer was going to build the largest shopping mall in northern virginia on the side of the second manassas battlefield and one of our products achievements since members of congress was to stop that at the time today is december 8th, 2008. yesterday, december 7, was the 67th anniversary of the japanese attack on pearl harbor. and yesterday afternoon a big man named grant standing there, second from the right was watching the washington redskins a few blocks from here at the griffith sdium when word came over the loudspeakers that the japanese attacked pearl harbor. brandt was a young navy flier of the time and had already been assigned to torpedo swa alterman eight. he was as big as any man on the football field and had played offensive lineman for the oregon state beavers. and he was a tough guy. he was excellent, he grew up in oregon. he had a very unusual name, teats. occasionally another defeat, officers what mispronounce his name. they never did a second time. [laughter] just to the south of here in richmond, virginia on the afternoon, yesterday afternoon, a young man had just arrived in richmond after winning his wings at pensacola. his name was albert k. earnest and burton earnest was with his state at the richmond country club. he was from a military family in richmond. he had gone to school with a governor harry byrne's song and then went to the emi. someone came in from the bar and said the japanese had attacked pearl harbor, and burt immediately took his date, and rushed to the closest naval facility in richmond. he was due to report on december 10th to norfolk at torpedo squadron eight. when he got to the naval facility there was an old chief petty officer there and burt said to him i'm not supposed to report until december 10th but i am here to help out, and the chief said thank you. i would like to think the navy would be able to survive for three days without you. [laughter] burt was to go on and when three navy crosses, two at midway and another at guadalcanal for seeking the japanese carrier in his avenger. another young man, third from the right on his name was bill evans, the youngest man in torpedo squadron eight. he grew up in a quaker family in indianapolis indiana, and he was in norfolk and the attack took place, and he immediately wrote a letter to his family back in indianapolis. i will give you a quick excerpt from that, margolis writer. my dear family, what a day. the incredulous of it all still gives each new announcement of the parole harbor attack the unreality of a fairy tale. i suppose we have known all along it could come some time. there was always that voice whispering know, we are too big and too rich, too powerful. they will never touch us here, and then this world fell apart. everywhere little groups of officers listening to the radio men hurrying from liberty changing clothes and reporting to battle stations. the japanese performed the impossible, they carried out of the most daring and successful raids and all of history, the whole thing was brilliant. tonight i put away all of my civilian clothes. i ferre them good in the years to come. once more the whole world as a fire in the period approaching christmas it is ironic to mount again the time worn phrases concerning peace on earth, good will to men with so many millions hard at work figuring out ways to reduce other millions to slavery or death. if the world ever goes through this again mankind is doomed. this time following the devastating attack on pearl harbor, the japanese umpire, bart, on one of the most stunning military campaigns, in the weeks afterwards they captured the british fortress of singapore and american held philippines job, leah and its east some mantra hong kong, guilaume and annihilated the eastern united states, great britain, australia and the netherlands. in those weeks, they conquered an umpire that had taken the western colonial powers 400 years to acquire. they captured or killed 500,000 allied soldiers and they now have 150 million new subjects. my book is about a group of men who came from all over the country mostly young men and they flew to plan that delivered unreliable torpedoes against japanese warships. in doing so at midway at guadalcanal they suffered the highest combat losses of any naval air squadron in the history. i always wondered about these men and who they were, how they got there and with the date, what it meant, and with the sacrifice cost their families. and that's the point of this book. torpedo squadron eight was formed in june of 1941. and was assigned to a brand new aircraft carrier, the uss hornet in norfolk virginia. some of you might ask what is a torpedo squadron. 1941 and her power can be used in two ways to sink an enemy worship. one was by dive bombing and dive bombers would attack a height of two to 3 miles then nose over into a steep dive and hopefully come out of that around 1500 to 2,000 feet and launch of bomb into an enemy who worship. the second methodology was with a torpedo plane that come in very low usually less than 500 feet and launch a torpedo against that ship hopefully hitting it with a torpedo that would detonate upon contact. 1941, each american aircraft carrier had three types of airplanes. they had a fighter craft, they had a dive bomber, squadron, two of them actually, and then they had a torpedo squadron. the dive bombers had been agreed for the united states navy. they had a brand new dive bomber it was fast, sturdy, well armed the and as good as anything the japanese have. the fighter planes that protected the dive bombers and torpedo planes, that was their role to protect them on the way to the enemy fleet and on the way back from enemy fighters and. they had the new grumman wildcat which was again superior aircraft very hearty very fast, not as fast as the japanese fighter, but albeit a great aircraft. the torpedo planes flown by torpedo eight at that time, one of the devastated. the devastate her was an obsolete aircraft that flew at 100 miles an hour. it had to 30 caliber machine guns to defend, one on the nose and one on the table. the men called them pop guns. the testator was one-third the speed of the japanese nafisi zero which flew 300 miles an hour. it was an extremely vulnerable to fighter attack. but the u.s. navy was bringing a new torpedo plane into operation it was going to be built by the grumman aircraft corporation called the grumman avenger. june, 19,413th man from the left standing out, john and charles wallgren then a lieutenant commander was appointed by the navy to come and torpedo squadron eight. he was a pure warrior, he had eccentricities to his personality as the famous stonewall jackson. he was born in 1900. let's see if i can do this. that's him on the right. he was born in 1900 in fort pierce of dakota descendant on his mother's side from the allow lawsuit and it was said he had the face and bear in of the warrior. he drew up in canada, his father treated with the indians, he treated that stubbles for dried fish and was said waldron never had fish again when he grew up in 1920 he received an appointment to annapolis. he never seen the ocean when he received the appointment and when he got there and was often derided as a hayseed, but again, cowpuncher, redskin, there were jabs that came in most cases from the navy families whose families were have morals and commodores it only steeled his result to succeed in the navy and he did and he became not only a natural leader but a great aviator, survived six crashes and becoming eventually on of the finest aviators and squadron leaders in the u.s. navy. he trained his men very hard and waffled. he knew the war was coming and often used unorthodox methods and at the same time he went to the establishment for inadequate equivalent for his defense to address some of his pilots was killed trying to land one on a carrier in norfolk. thanks to his hectoring torpedo squadron eight was chosen as the first navy squadron in the navy to receive these grumman avengers, the brand new torpedo plane. in march of 1942, the hornet left for the pacific. they were going to be carrying jimmy doolittle's for the first launch a raid on tokyo japan and of course waldron went with them , with his stiffest batres and senior pilots. he left behind half of his squadron to receive the new avengers and hope as soon as they are live to -- arrived in would be put on transport and sent to hawaii to pearl harbor to catch up to the hornet before another major battle went to japanese. in early may of 1942, american codebreakers led by joe roche byrd defeat could be used the japanese planned invasion of midway, 1200 miles west of hawaii. it was designed to draw the last american forces, the carriers out of pearl harbor where they would find this overwhelming force of japanese to destroy them. and eliminate their presence and they reached the point in the pacific. ed model commanding the pacific fleet put all his confidence in those codebreakers to setting up an ambush on the japanese fleet. the japanese fleet was the largest force of ships ever assembled up to that point in human history and there were 162 more ships, eight aircraft carriers, eight cruisers, i don't remember how many battleship's right now, forgive me. but against the 162 ships, he was able to put together 24. he had three carriers, the enterprise and the hornet which were both in first-class condition. he also had yorktown which had been badly damaged a month earlier at the battle in the coral sea. when he put hoped victory could be achieved against the japanese this plan was to ambush them when all of the pilots from the japanese carriers particularly the first four and striking force while they were attacking midway, he hoped to launch an attack from his carriers and mail carriers so that when the pilots returned there would be no ships for them to land on. may 28, the hornet and enterprise left pearl harbor for the ambush northeast. waldron went with them carrying the debt staters. 12 hours later, the 21 avengers arrived on the fast transform called the uss shelled. 12 hours to date to be incorporated into the arsenal of the hornets as the battle approached. over the four or five days, first four days the midway was heading -- excuse me, the hornet was hitting midway waldron was fighting for something to get his man and a hedge, it was a critical factor and fighter protection. a month later friend jack fletcher divided up the fighters under his command between the dive bombers and torpedo planes. half of the fighters, the grumman and wildcats still apply, two, 3 miles high with the dive bombers and the other have stayed low with the torpedo planes. the torpedo planes were able to put several hits in japanese ships none of them were shot down. waldron was asking exactly the same approach be used at midway. the commander in the gornick air group was a man named stan, for commander a yr ahead of waldron at the academy. a very different man than waldron, the son of the navy commodore, of one of the wealthy families. he played the mandolin, was an expert, quite leading man, and some according to the lucky bag he was a snake with the local debutantes. [laughter] he wasn't considered a great flier, he wasn't considered a great navigator. geora limburg, lt. on the horn at at one point had gathered a group of men together after he lost the entire hornet airport over the gulf of mexico and had to rely on his exit of officer to lead them back actually thought about just shooting down his plane before he ended up killing others in the group. [laughter] stan said know we are not going to do it the same way fletcher did at the coral sea. all of -- all of the wildcats are going to stay with the dive bombers, to come three after the 18,000 feet, 8 miles in height and altitude and the torpedo planes would stay information so that the air group attack together. but they would be down on the deck at approximately 1500 feet. he would lead the entire group and a dive bomber and the torpedo planes would keep up flying directly below them. pat mitchell who commanded the fire on the hornets went to pete mitchell, the captain of the hornet and said he thought his entire squadron should stay with the torpedo squadron. back in hawaii and i won't diverge too long on this because i only have a limited amount of time but may 31st he asked six of the offenders, six of the 21 that had arrived on the uss shall not be flown to midway to add to the meager error and garrison they had out there and so six of those planes were flown out on a command of langdon kellogg fever when, the graduate of the denver city of california berkeley captain of the rugby team and very interesting man. in the midway battle that would take place june 4 of those six planes were the first to attack the japanese fleet. they played an important role helping convince the commander of the striking force to make a fateful decision that ultimately affected the outcome of the battle. of the 18 men who flew with h that day only two survived the attack. they were the first to arrive alone and unsupported and taking on the entire japanese fleet. i don't have time to talk about that tonight, but it's a story that deserves to be told. on the night -- and is told in the book -- on the night of june 3rd, waldron urged his men to write letters home, and last letters home, and they did. rusty canyon from mount vernon new york, this letter was found in his room after the battle to his wife. dearest braudy, this is another one of those letters i hope never gets to you unless i bring it myself and give it to you from my own hand. you might call it a note on thoughts before the attack from which i hope to return. this time the fight will be out here off midway island. i feel more and he's now with the battle ahead because i know even if i have to die i will know soon you will have a baby that is part of both a fuss. what love we have consummated together. i know there is nothing greater than love and nothing finer. everything i have is yours. you're part of me and i am part of you. the happiest moments in my life have been those i have spent with you. i love you, sweetheart, more than anything else in the world, more than life itself, all of my love, rusty. the young man who wrote the letter from norfolk. certainly the only flyer they hornet air group may be in the whole battle who decided to become a navy flier after reading a book was a book by antoine the cold wind, sand and stars and that is when he decided to become a pilot. he had a been a student that graduated from the university. he was called the squire. that is a graduation picture. he wore saddleback shoes when he wasn't wearing his uniform. but behind his the sod there was an intensity to explore the limits of his mind and of human endeavor. when he was skiing were studying biology he proved to be as good a full year as anyone in the squadron. he drove home the fate has been kind to me. so many times now it has become commonplace i have seen incidents that make me know we are not soft or bitter. the police who brought nothing but content and indifference in college who showed apparent lack of responsibility carrying out the load that no sport in never bettered. many of my friends are now dead. to a man who died with nonchalant -- he simply called it a lack of fear and forgot the triumph. if anything great or good is born of this war, it should not be valued in the colonies we may win but rather in the use of our country. who never trained for more. almost never believed in war. but have been from some hidden source brought forth a gallantry which is homespun. i wanted you to know that they have not let you down. out here between the speechless sea and sky american youth has found itself and given itself so at home the spark may catch, burst into flame and burn high. my look can't last -- am i look can't hold out much longer but the flame goes on and on. that is important. please give my wishes to all of the family and they all find favor in god's grace. bill. and finally waldron to his wife who was the perfect navy wife. deer adamle i believe we will be in battle soon. if i do not come back, well, you and the little girls can know that this squadron shot for the highest to sink the enemy. i know you wish me luck and i believe i will have it. you know in this business of the torpedo attack we must have a break. i believe i have experience and enough sood in me to recognize the break when it comes and it will come. god bless you, you are a wonderful wife and mother. kissed the girls for me. that began the next morning on june 4th with the sighting of the japanese striking force. aboard the hornet the planes began to take off, first the wildcat fighters flying their way up to 20,000 feet and t 34 dive bombers and finally 15 torpedo planes, the that testator's heading off last. 59 aircraft and all. one-third of ad models entire attack group with everything, all of the chips put on the table to try to defeat this incredible japanese fleet. on the bridge just before they took off, there was a last-minute conference with captain pete mitchell and the squadron commanders. pat mitchell again requested the fighters all of them accompanying the devastate terse he said they would stay up with the dive bombers. there was then heated disagreement over the course that they would follow. he said the course of a butterfly would be 265 degrees almost due west. wallgren spoke up in this agreement aggressively. the last sighting of the japanese carriers had been 230 degrees southwest. wallgren proposed a course of 240. mitchell ended the argument. they went out at 265 degrees. at 750 they left the hornets, 44 planes up in 18 to 20,000 feet and 3 miles below them the 15 planes of waldron. at 8:16, and there was a strictly enforced code of radio silence on this mission and we can all appreciate why, troy and ben, to dive bomber pilots heard a voice come over the radio career without a call sign. they recognized the voice and it was john waldron and he said we are going in the wrong direction and later i know where the dam japanese fleet is and then they responded finally you fly on us. i am leaving this formation. 8:25 the last communication came from waldron, the hell with you. richard wilson was a donner and dive bomber looked down and saw the lead torpedo plane move off to the southwest to the left and he called up on the intercom to don kirkpatrick the pilots to tell him and the last plane in the whole group flying a wildcat from massachusetts looked down and solve them go. many years later he told an interviewer i can see them now. for the 44 planes with the hornet air group had been one-third of the attack force the mission was over. they were on a flight to know where. shortly the fighter planes began to run out of gas. they turned around trying to head back to the hornet. they went into the pacific one by one and then the dive bombers first peeled off, first one squadron and then the second. at one point, stan flew west 265 degrees all alone. at 9:17 that morning, john waldron solve the japanese fleet to emerge from the nest. straight ahead. and george, they called him tex. that's him in the center. rusty wrote that letter to his wife, just to the left of him. george flying in the squadron leader wrote waldron had taken them to the japanese fleet as if they were at the end of the line. watching them come on, the commander operations officer noted they looked like a group of waterfowl flying across the lake slowly across the lake. he was absolutely amazed they were coming alone and unsupported. we won't go in, wallgren radioed to the others, we won't turn back. at that point dozens of japanese flying high cover for the ford lead carriers swarmed down around the slow-moving tiffin staters and one by one they began to fall. he watched waldron die. a burst of cannon fire ignited one of the tanks and the plane began gliding down to the sea trailing smoke and flames. as he watched waldron suddenly stood up in the blazing cockpit as if he was writing a firing cherry at. the moment later the plane hit the surface and was gone. of the 30 men flying with wallgren only tex survived from that group. none of those planes made a hit on a japanese carrier but they did something equally important. first thing that brought the zeros down to the deck to the height of 500 feet to shoot down all of the torpedo planes and secondly, while the torpedo planes were attacking he couldn't watch his counter attack of hundreds of aircraft that were going to be going after the american carriers. torpedo eight had bought the precious time allow the merkel at midway. through fate the torpedo squadron also devastate person from the yorktown enterprise came up one by one in sequence right after torpedo eight. they were badly decimated and those that survived turned back. at 10:20, george now in the water, his plane shot down, wounded watched as the dive bombers from the enterprise and yorktown arrived over the japanese fleet completely unmolested. they came at 15,000 feet, they noticed over all of this japanese zeros were down on the deck and they sent three of the four carriers between 10:20 and 10:25 on the morning of june 4th. and the carer wt down later that day. herman wrote the brilliant classic, one of my favorite novels. but also to books, winds of war, very evocatively recreated the midway battle on the second book, war and remembrance. he wrote about torpedo squadron. what wasn't a lot about the soul of the united states of america was this willingness of the torpedo plane squadron is to go in against hopeless odds. it was the extra amounts of weight and a few decisive minutes tipped the balance of history so long as they choose to decide the terms of history with the slaughter in youth the memory of these three torpedo squadron is should not die. it was those words that were the inspiration for this book. they have echoed within me ever since. unfortunately i don't have the time to tell you the best of the story. principally the cover-up by the senior officers of the hornets and the fact stanhope cotton was awarded the navy cross for that mission. the same metal for valor john waldron received. and the fact that the second half of the squadron of torpedo squadron eight went to fight from the uss saratoga and became the only torpedo squadron to fight with the cactus air force at guadalcanal and in the air going first weeks after the invasion of guadalcanal when they were helping sink the ships of the so-called tokyo express that were bringing men and supplies and down the slot and will to resupply guadalcanal. i am -- wrote for those that fought the guadalcanal isn't just a name, it was an emotion and torpedo squadron need developed an incredible record at guadalcanal. in fact he had the unique record of achievement in the navy. the squadron was officially credited with sharing the discretion to the construction of two carriers, one battleship, five cruisers, one destroyer, one transport, numerous enemy aircraft. at midway 45 of the 48 were killed. guadalcanal 700 squadron members were killed. its pilots, 35 pilots, 24 of them killed one an astounding navy crosses between them. among the enlisted men there were more than 50 metals when the distinguished flying crossed the start multiple awards. they were also the only unit awarded to presidential unit citationfrom franklin roosevelt the first from midway and second from guadalcanal. bring alive these men on printed page was a sacred trust. i feel honored to have had the chance to try to do that job because they deserve to be remembered. thank you very much for listening to me. [applause] >> if you would like to ask a question please step up to the microphone here. i would be interested to know a little bit about how you accomplished this research because there were such few survivors how many survivors are still alive today and how did you go about gathering so much pertinent and personal information? >> honestly when i started researching this story the only man i knew about were the ones who flew with john and charles wallgren. i wasn't aware of the six avengers and their role in the battle and a friend of mine who is a civil war historian called me one day and said one of the torpedo eight survivors lives and norfolk virginia and i said no george gay was the only survivor and he died although i was happy to have been given his confidential diaries written contemporaneously much on that trip when they left pearl harbor may 28, 1942 and right up to the battle he said no, he's a great bmi graduate, he 13 navy crosses and i began reading and research and what had occurred with the group at midway and i called the captain and he was kind enough to say come on down and i spent three days with him. it was just remarkable time because he brought a light so many things quite vividly how he won his first two navy crosses any mission that chester called, quote an epic in aviation and it truly was and i wish i had the time to tell you about it but that is what started the process. i then learned there were other survivors. jean hanson 12 navy crosses at guadalcanal and lives in pensacola smiling morgan won the navy cross on august 24th mission against the writer joe. i went to visit all of them and the enlisted men were 14 when i started and i visited many of them but i was also particularly interested in the lost pilots, the ones who had died at midway never came back. people like brandt teats and evans and so i visited their family and was fortunate finding children, rusty canyon's bader, her name is rusty, too, she lives in virginia. she was the one who provided me with his last letter. plight traveled the country for two and a half years any time i was able to find a member of a family of a lost pilot i eventually was able to accumulate several hundred letters, dozens of photographs, just a lot of stories we were then able to fold into the account of what occurred. i was also blessed with meeting a retired trial lawyer from maryland. he was the man who unraveled the mystery of the cover-up that occurred aboard the hornets when they were sent in the wrong direction. and it is a full appendix in my book how he was able to do that. he studied navigation under a legendary professor at annapolis he was a marine navigator with hundreds of hours and experience in the pacific during the second world war, and his friend, kelly jr. was killed at midway, one of the fighter pilots i told you when they went into the pacific some of them were not found. the ones that were picked up were picked up six or seven days later near death. kelly was never found and when he looked at the original sightings, this is one of those little flecks of history the bye find particularly fascinating, he had taken over the marquand kelly jr. foundation in baltimore in double law of the office was something called a short snorter bill that in a navy tradition if you were shot down and picked up by a rescue pilot the rescue pilot would expect he would give him the biggest denomination bill you had in your billfold. it was called a shorts' order bill. when he took the shorts order bill off the wall and it's reproduced in this book he found the hornets, the longitude and latitude and the course they were flying when they found one of those fliers and it was 200 miles away from where they were supposed to have gone down and originally the rescue planes went searching for them and that is what led him on an odyssey where he traveled the entire country meeting with men who had survived from the gornick air group and athlone that day and he turned over 50 hours of interviews he had done with troy, ben, the man who had heard the exchange between walt and interestingly enough for corroboration purposes, both of them had said the same thing in questionnaires they had sent to walter lord back in the early 60's when walter word was researching the book incredible victory about midway and thanks to paul i was the first one to look at all of walter word's personal notes and completed questionnaires from the people who had contributed to his book on midway. so the long answer to that question, jack, is it went in a lot of different directions and i was blessed with having an opportunity to have people who were able to put it together for me. and i was grateful, too when i sent a copy of the book to every one of the survivors and the squadron to a man they said they found the story at least it affected him personally to be absolutely accurate, which you know i've written three novels and lord knows it is easier to write a novel. [laughter] than to get the story straight particularly when it is a matter of such importance when it comes to history. i might add one of the confirming factors that they got it right was when admiral thomas who had been the commander in chief for the pacific fleet and then tried chairman joint chiefs of staff about his findings and called him and the grilled him for three hours and then said the navy got it wrong and he then took this self published a book and sent it to every library in the united states navy and that was one more piece of confirmation pete mitscher also had a biography written about him was called the magnificent letcher and he proved to be a magnificent commander of the task force 58 later on in the war and michael bald who flew avengers and was killed fought the world of pete, but june 4th, 1942 captain pete mitchell was not magnificent and he was the first to admit incorporated material for this book. >> do any of you know the dog's names? [laughter] >> you've concentrated on the midway. how about the flavor of guadalcanal and with the squadron did? >> the man that john waldron left behind in norfolk to command the second half of the squadron and receive the criminal ventures was a lieutenant named harold henry larsen they called him swede larsson. he was an annapolis graduate, very domineering man partly disliked by the men who served and thought he had the charm and leadership ability of captain william. the enlisted men who served under him probably haven't heard about him but they knew he was a son of a bitch. [laughter] he was an incredible pilot but was very hard on the men. two of them attempted to shoot him. one at guadalcanal and one shortly after they were relieved after their service on guadalcanal but while they were there, they flew almost every day under swede larsson and all kind of weather day and night they enjoyed great success. arthur bamberger had brought him to command the marine air force's on guadalcanal and brigadier general told his fighter pilots your job is to knock down the japanese zeros when they come in. the job of sweet larsen and the torpedo planes as last the dive bombers was to stop the tokyo express, stop the japanese ships reinforcing the men on guadalcanal and that is what swede larsson did. there is swede as commander. that's bert earnest, he won his third navy cross at guadalcanal. he told me a wonderful story about how shortly before one of the missions going up the marine pilots call in the slot having backed up towards bougainville, the navy pilots call it the groove and prior to one mission gwyneth approved h told the pilots general vander eckert said whoever puts the next tepito or the next dive bomb in the ship will get a ceremonial sword that had been taken at the battle of the bridge on the night of september 15th so they flew on up the career of and found a group of enemy destroyers and cruisers and went in on this attack and, you know, the flak that would be sent up by these ships against the attacking planes coming low on the water was like a ball of fire bert earnest made through and torpedoed one of those ships and was credited for it by other pilots on the mission with him and when he came back to him, larsen said you had over to general bamberger of's command scheppach and you're going to get that sort and so burt went over there and knock on the door and the staff colonel came and seemed to know who he was and what he was doing and bert came in and looked across the room and there was the general standard -- vendor durham and he said general, my own son is a vmi and he said yes, sir i know he was a first-class mind when i was a rat, and he said thank you for putting a dent in the tokyo express eight what's at woodring ana and bert looked over and there were tin cups on the table and bottle of scotch and vandergriff went over and poured some scotch into the cup and he looked at the cup and said that's barely a thimble full of scotch in the cup. [laughter] he said let's toast and so they all took their set of scotch and burt said insure wanted to do that again. and then the general handed him the ceremonial sword which is now on permanent display and wasn't just one of the swords the men sold the marines manufactured almost after engagements with the japanese. this was the real thing with sharks teeth and all kind of chrysanthemums and burt said to me i would have given that sort of back if he had given me the rest of the bottle of scotch. [laughter] but they had a rough at one point. all of the planes were destroyed by battleships on october 13th they only had five avengers left and swede larsson said to him and i want you to take them and build me one good avenger and he went through all of the planes, the wings were off, they were twisted, all of the controls were shot out and he said i will try and he said you're not going to try, i want it in a week and chief hammond and the operations officer went to pete eventually the vice chairman of jpmorgan bank and another yale man, there were more men in the squadron than analysts' men and they built the first frankenstein avenger and he took over the position and i put helen to the japanese beyond fever before it was shot down and then he said build me another one. ..