William F. Trimble
Author of Admiral William A. Moffett: Architect of Naval Aviation (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series)
About the Author
William F. Trimble is Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Auburn University in Alabama.
Works by William F. Trimble
Admiral William A. Moffett: Architect of Naval Aviation (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series) (1993) 23 copies
Admiral John S. McCain and the Triumph of Naval Air Power (Studies in Naval History and Sea Power) (2019) 11 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1947
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Occupations
- Professor of history at Auburn University, Alabama
Members
Reviews
Statistics
- Works
- 9
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 102
- Popularity
- #187,251
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 14
There are a number of controversies about McCain, starting with how he was one of the last "Johnny come lately" aviators; officers looking to get involved in aviation relatively late in their careers, as they were gunning for an admiral's stars. As much as McCain preferred sea duty over being in Washington, he knew how to play that political game to perfection, parlaying an aviator's gold wings into command of the carrier "Ranger," and punching his ticket to flag rank. As much as this aggravated career aviation officers, who in retrospect look very paranoid about their own career prospects, there is no denying that McCain's wide experience justified his elevation, and his performance and leadership ability generally backed up the image.
What's particularly interesting to me are the times when McCain was lucky to skate around controversy, as while Ernest King and Chester Nimitz concurred in advancing McCain's career, neither man would have had any issues with leaving McCain on the beach. These issues include the failure of McCain's scouting aircraft in regards to the Savo Island disaster (McCain being commander of the flying boat squadrons in the Southwest Pacific), McCain's part in the command debacles of the battle of Leyte Gulf, and his role in the two times that Halsey's 3rd Fleet was savaged by typhoons. At a certain level, all four of these incidents were tied to failures of electronic communication, which suggests that signals management was a weakness throughout the American naval officer corps. Not to mention, in the case of the misadventures with bad weather, of the prevalence of too much aggression for its own sake. It's at times like this, when Raymond Spruance's cool assessment of risk make him look like an indispensable man, and, at the very least, makes his pairing with Marc Mitscher look like the superior command team, as compared to that of Halsey and McCain.
Speaking to Trimble's performance as an author, he's had a long career as an aviation historian, and the quality of this book reflects this. It has a very strong documentary base and Trimble is well engaged with the historiography of the subject. Highly recommended.… (more)