Thomas B. Buell (1936–2002)

Raymond Spruance is one of the great admirals that served during the Pacific campaign in WWII. Mr Buell has taken on the task of writing about this very private man. Admiral Spruance never sought out the media coverage and was not very well known like Nimitz and Halsey but he played a huge role in the command of Pacific victories. When he returned to the U.S. after the war he didn't get a hero's welcome like Nimitz and Halsey did (not to take away from them). He just went to assume his new show more job as the President of the War College. His career and views were private and he liked it that way but he was key to such battles as Midway (where he assumed command because Halsey was ill), battle of the Philippine sea, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Did he make mistakes? Sure he did but so did most of the senior admirals in the Pacific (Halsey had Leyte Gulf and two hurricanes for example) but overall, Spruance was known as a methodical and very good commander of the U.S. Naval forces. This is a great book for people interested in learning about this unique and key person from this era of Naval history. show less

I enjoyed reading the leadership qualities of these six generals - and it sounds like it would have been better for all if Gen. Thomas had been in charge of the Union and Hood in charge of the Confederate army. It was a blunderful war - the number of blunders on both sides was staggering. Still it was an informative book. It would have earned five stars if there had been more graphics - the arrays of names were difficult to follow (and remember whose side was whom for this Civil War novice), show more so command charts would have been nice whenever commanders were reasigned - and more maps to illustrate the battles, too. (It seems like both armies had an Army of Tennessee, which was REALLY confusing; about half way through I realized one was called The Army of Tennessee and the other was The Army of the Tennessee - that distinction could have been made clearer earlier on). It would be a neat project in the future for some Leadership scholar to join forces with a Civil War scholar to reference actual leadership theories to what was going on and make something like this not just a scholarly Civil War book but also a scholarly leadership book. show less

The latest monograph in the Korean War series illuminates the role of the Navy's top flag officers in Washington, the Pacific area, and the Korean theater of operations before and during the first chaotic months of war. Thanks to the leadership of six influential naval officers and the mobility of naval forces, especially carrier aviation, U.S. forces were in South Korea within three weeks of the North's invasion. The six protagonists--Admiral Forrest P. Sherman, Admiral Arthur W. Radford, show more Vice Admiral C. Turner Joy, Vice Admiral Arthur D. Struble, Rear Admiral James H. Doyle, and Rear Admiral Arleigh A. Burke--were involved in the strategy, planning, and execution of the most critical operations of the war. show less

This is a fitting biography of the commander of the American side of the wildly co-incidental battle of Midway. It is a book heavily slanted to the service life of Spruance, but his navy life is his claim to fame. The maps are competent, and the text is clear.