Zumwalt
Page 58
10. Warner et al., Disaster in the Pacific, 3.
11. “Cut of My Jib,” tape, ZPP.
12. The log for the Zeilin on that night reads, “Heavy gunfire, three ships in flames.” Twenty-four enemy dive bombers got through, the Enterprise taking three bombs, which he personally observed. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 64.
13. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 67.
14. Richard Crowe, “The Occasion of Midshipman Bud Zumwalt Meeting Lord Louis Mountbatten,” ZFC.
15. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 70.
16. The transfer took place on August 25. Ibid., 75.
17. Ibid., 76.
18. Ibid.
19. Sturgeon’s account is in the Washington Post, Dec. 10, 1972.
20. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 76.
21. Bud’s first fitness report said something to the effect that “Ensign Zumwalt may be a very good naval officer, but it has not been possible to ascertain the facts, because he has essentially been in his bunk seasick since reporting aboard.” It went on to recommend that he ought to be transferred to a bigger ship. Bud attached a letter to the report saying that he was gradually becoming acclimated. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 76.
22. In preparation for joining Task Unit 1.1.2, conducting antisubmarine patrol and screen duties for battleships.
23. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr. Jane arrived on Oct. 8, 1942. Letter from Mary Crowe in San Francisco to Portland, ZFC.
24. Leave started Nov. 2, 1942.
25. Letter from Elmo to Jim, July 1, 1945, ZFC.
26. When they returned to Long Beach, Bud persuaded Jane to return to Dos Palos, where she could resume a job. Bud would have preferred that she return to her parents in the East, but Jane refused to do that. Bud initiated an interlocutory decree of divorce, with his sister serving as a witness. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr.
27. The Phelps’s log shows that Zumwalt was promoted to lieutenant on May 1, 1943, and that on that day initiated a next-of-kin change, so that would establish the day that the interlocutory-decree divorce became effective. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr.
28. Nov. 19, 1943, ZFC.
29. Undated, ZFC.
30. July 1, 1944, ZFC.
31. Oct. 19, 1944, ZFC.
32. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 62–65.
33. Ibid.
34. The log of the Phelps on Feb. 3, 1943, reads, “Ensign Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., U.S. Navy, returned from the nearest naval hospital, with entry in medical record.” Zumwalt told Paul Stillwell, “I had spent the night in the Hilton Hotel in Long Beach with my wife. I got up at 4:00 in the morning to return to the ship, which was scheduled to get under way early for a several-day exercise. The next thing I knew, I awakened in the Long Beach Naval Hospital, to which I had been taken in an ambulance, having been found in the alley that one goes through to get from the Hilton Hotel to what was then either a bus station or a taxi station—I can’t recall which. The next thing I recall is that a message came in from the squadron commander on board the USS Phelps, addressed to the shore patrol saying, ‘Ensign E. R. Zumwalt, Jr., absent without leave, investigate.’ Then, eventually, from the shore patrol reporting that I was in the hospital. A subsequent investigation concluded that I had apparently been struck over the head by someone, probably having robbery in mind, although I was discovered by an individual and an ambulance called with my pocketbook still on me. So I would assume that whoever did it was disturbed. There was no evidence of damage other than the temporary concussion that was discovered, and I went back to the ship most fully and honorably exonerated.” Since there was no robbery, the author’s theory is that Bud was beaten by one of Jane’s suitors.
35. James G. Zumwalt, interview with author.
36. The Aleutian Campaign, June 1942–August 1943 (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1993).
37. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr.
38. Ibid.
39. The Aleutian Campaign, 88.
40. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr.
41. Ibid.
42. Vignette, James G. Zumwalt.
43. “Col. E. R. Zumwalt Eye-Witness to Nazis’ Atrocities: Takes Pictures of Scenes,” Tulare Union, undated, circa Apr.–May 1945.
44. Letter to Bud, Apr. 26, 1945, ZFC.
45. See “History of the USS Robinson (DD 562),” Division of Naval History, Ships’ History Section, Navy Department.
46. After shakedown training in San Diego, the Robinson was under way for Pearl Harbor on April 16.
47. Cutler, The Battle of Leyte Gulf, preface.
48. James C. Heinecke, “The Exploits of the U.S.S. Robinson (DD 562), 1944–1945,” kept in violation of ship rules. Sonarman Third Class Heinecke died in 1994. ZPP.
49. The bombing was extremely effective. “The Japs have been pushed from the town and are crowded on the tip of Saipan. . . . Rather than be taken prisoner, they stripped themselves and started swimming for this reef . . . the beach is dotted with wounded, which we can’t get at. What a hell of a way to die. One of the men said that on the island the smell of dead is unbearable,” wrote Heinecke. ZPP.
50. The Grant sighted about twenty Japanese swimming in the water and used depth charges to take care of them. “Depth charge, very effective,” recalled Bud. “I don’t know how well it’s known that we did some of that in the war. We also did it in Surigao Straits. Not a very pretty performance.” Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 151.
51. “History of the USS Robinson (DD 562),” 2.
52. “Our force consisted of five battleships, the California, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and the Mississippi, seven cruisers, one was Australian, and 12 destroyers including the Robinson’s 112th division.” Paul Stillwell, The Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr.
53. “History of the USS Robinson (DD 562),” 2.
54. This account draws from Jason Hammer, “The Night the Island Blinked.” I also draw from a story in the files written by H. H. Buck Bedford, Ship Laundry, 3rd class, who was also on board that evening. In a letter to the Zumwalt family on Jan. 18, 2000, Hammer wanted the family to know “how this remarkable man touched my life.” He concluded, “Thank you, Bud. I am certain a loving God has greeted you with a well-deserved: ‘Well done, Admiral.’ ” ZFC.
55. “History of the USS Robinson (DD 562),” 3.
56. Jan. 18, 2000, ZFC.
57. At ten thousand yards, the Japanese detected the Robinson, and shelling began. The Japanese battleships opened up on the Robinson. “I felt the butterflies in my belly when I saw three salvos, three shells in each, come sailing toward us, and you know there isn’t a thing you can do except watch with your fingers crossed. They sailed over us, hitting one of our division astern on our port quarter, the USS Grant.”
58. See letter to William Stanhope, Jan. 10, 1990. Of all the battle situations he had been in, the one that stood out most vividly was the Battle of Surigao Strait. “I was serving as battle evaluator on the USS ROBINSON (DD562), leading a section of three destroyers down the east side of the Straits to attack the Japanese force with torpedoes,” recalled Zumwalt in a letter. “The Japanese battleships opened up on us. Their first salvo was short. The second salvo was over. We were all holding our breath waiting for the third salvo which would have done it when suddenly our battleships opened fire and the Japanese trained their guns to return that fire. There was an immense feeling of relief followed by the guilty feeling that someone else was being shot at.” Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr.
59. Letter to Paul Rifkin, Nov. 21, 1980, ZPP.
60. According to Hammer, “No waiting around to see the results, if any. We turned sharply and, at flank speed, rushed for the relative safety only distance could provide. . . . Enemy star shells hung in the sky directly overhead pointing a bri
ght accusing finger of light at our naked vulnerability as the crew heard the ominous sounds of shells chasing our wake and often landing dangerously close to our thin-skinned hull. As the seconds ticked by, our lease on life seemed to lengthen in proportion to the distance we rapidly put between us and our desperate foe in the throes of its own funeral pyre.”
61. Ibid. See Samuel Eliot Morison, Leyte (Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2001).
62. ZTT, undated.
63. Ibid.
64. Two future CNOs were serving on destroyers during the engagement, Bud aboard the Robinson and James L. Holloway III, a gunnery officer on the USS Bennion. Holloway would succeed Bud as CNO in 1974.
65. Admiral Grantham, as related by Jerry Wages.
66. Letter postmarked Sept. 3, 1945, ZFC.
67. Letter, June 1, 1945, ZFC.
68. Letter, July 19, 1945, ZFC.
69. Letter postmarked June 5, 1945, ZFC.
70. Letter postmarked Sept. 3, 1945, ZFC.
71. Ibid.
72. Sept. 27, 1945, ZFC.
73. “Jap Gunboat Crew Sifted at Shanghai,” Washington Post, Sept. 15, 1945, p. 2.
74. “190 Suspects Are Found Aboard Japanese Vessel,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 1945, 5.
75. Bud’s comments in fiftieth wedding anniversary video, ZFC.
76. Zumwalt, On Watch, 3.
77. Sept. 15, 1945, report from Lt. Zumwalt to Commander Task Group 73.2, “Narrative of Prize Crew of H.I.J.M.S. ATAKA Covering Trip to SHANGHAI, CHINA, and Return.” ZPP.
78. Milton E. Miles’s posthumous memoir was A Different Kind of War: The Little-Known Story of the Combined Guerrilla Forces Created in China by the U.S. Navy and the Chinese During World War II, ed. Hawthorne Daniel from the original manuscript (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967).
79. Bud told Paul Stillwell, “Rear Admiral Miles’s orders were to keep this Task Unit under heavy guard of fifty men supplied by the land based Naval forces, to continue the policy of denying the captured crew all contact with their Headquarters.”
80. Letter to Mel Knickerbocker, Aug. 3, 1970, ZFC. The sword is now with Bud’s son Jim Zumwalt.
81. Dr. Mel White, “The Admiral’s Wife: A True Story of Mouza Zumwalt’s Fifty Year Marriage to Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr.,” unpublished book proposal manuscript. I am grateful to Ann Zumwalt Coppola for sharing tape transcripts of her mother’s recollections.
82. Ibid. Mouza’s aunt had seen her husband and brother killed by the Russians in the revolution. She had remarried a man who had been in the Zabaikalsky Cossacks, whose first wife had been killed and their baby taken by the Soviets. He escaped to Shanghai and then married the aunt.
83. Interview notes of Marcia Risaino, Mar. 8, 1996, Next Book file, ZFC.
84. Undated letter provided to the author by Richard Crowe and Zumwalt family.
85. I am grateful for having the opportunity to read a draft of Richard Crowe’s Zumwalt Family History (in preparation) with comments by Emile and Stephanie Ninaud.
86. Washington Post, Dec. 1, 1972. Decades later Bud quipped, “Wrong gesture, but the right effect.” Dinner was a true feast: lots of vodka and wine, multiple courses “so delicious that the mind refused to acknowledge the stomach’s defeat.”
87. Bud’s letter is reprinted in On Watch, Nov. 10, 1945.
88. “The interest in studying Russian began in the last six or eight months of the war, when it was clear that was coming to an end, and I could see that our next major adversary would be the Soviets. My own view was always that we were going to have very great trouble after the war. I felt that I had done a lot more reading than the average naval officer with whom I associated.” Bud later requested assignment as assistant naval attaché to Moscow. This request was disapproved. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr.
89. Tape transcript provided by Ann Zumwalt Coppola.
90. Renaissance Weekend, Mouza speaking about “the toughest decision of my life.” Author interview with Phillip Lader.
91. Oct. 10, 1985, letter, Mel Knickerbocker and Jim Good’s account, “As We Remember,” sent to Bud following Robinson fortieth reunion. ZFC and ZPP.
92. Ibid.
93. From the handwritten diary of Augie Carrillo, Oct. 22, 1945, Shanghai, ZPP and ZFC.
94. Tape transcript of Mouza’s recollections, provided to author by Ann Zumwalt Coppola.
95. Fitness report, Oct. 24, 1945, ZPP.
CHAPTER 5: CROSSROADS
1. Admiral Robert Hanks, fiftieth wedding anniversary reminiscence, ZFC.
2. Paul Stillwell, Reminiscences by Staff Officers, 159.
3. Letter to Mouza, Feb. 13, 1990, reflecting on forty-four years of marriage, ZFC.
4. Letter, Nov. 6, 1945, 6 a.m., ZFC.
5. Letter, Nov. 6, 1945, 2 p.m., ZFC.
6. Letter, undated, ZFC.
7. Letter, Jan. 26, 1945, ZFC.
8. Letter, Jan. 9, 1946, ZFC.
9. Letter, Feb. 3, 1946, ZFC.
10. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 167–69.
11. Letter from Everett F. Drumright to Lietenant Zumwalt, Feb. 19, 1956, ZFC and ZPP.See also “USS General H. L. Scott (AP-136),” www.navsource.org/archives/09/22/22136.htm.
12. Mouza taped interview transcript provided by Ann Zumwalt Coppola.
13. Letter, Feb. 8, 1946, on USS Saufley, ZFC.
14. Mar. 11, 1946, ZFC.
15. Mar. 16, 1945, Tulare, CA, in care of Irene Fluckinger, ZFC.
16. Mar. 15, 1946, ZFC.
17. She had a particularly hard time with money and making change, because the difference between nickels and dimes made no sense to her—that the larger coin was worth less than the smaller one. Irene devised a plan for taping the coins together and writing their value on a piece of paper.
18. “I would say that she felt quite dependent on me . . . there was great apprehension on her part about being alone at those times, and she still didn’t understand well our check system and so forth. I remember writing out all the checks that she would have to sign for utilities and that sort of thing, and showing her how to put in the date and amount.” Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 170.
19. Letter to Pricilla Barry with recollections for fiftieth anniversary, Sept. 25, 1995, ZFC.
20. Letter from the Zellars, July 14, 1946, ZFC.
21. Letter, July 15, 1946, ZFC.
22. Letter, “My Dear Bud,” July 18, 1946, ZFC.
23. Letter from the Zellars, July 21, 1946, ZFC.
24. Letter recounting the conversation, July 22, 1946, ZFC.
25. Aug. 5, 1946, ZFC.
26. Ibid.
27. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 239–40.
28. “Mouza and I leave for Dos Palos tonight,” telegram from Jim to Bud, Aug. 29, 1946, ZFC.
29. James G. Zumwalt, interview with author and vignette.
30. Below signature: “dictated to my dad on August 10, 1987,” ZFC.
31. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 180.
32. Jan. 10, 1947, ZFC.
33. Aug. 9, 1947, ZFC.
34. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 178.
35. Letter, J. M. Reid, Jr., Mar. 18, 1947. “It sounds like fatherly advice,” wrote Reid, who added, “was so sorry to hear about Mussa’s [sic] father—after waiting all these years, to have such an ending.” Reid described the tough economic situation in the States, with more and more people looking for work, prices rising, and the economy “not in a healthy condition.” ZFC.
36. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 172; there is also an extensive discussion on Zumwalt tape 1, ZTT.
37. From the earliest draft of “The Cut of My Jib,” ZTT.
38. R. R. Conner to Lieutenant E. R Zumwalt, USS Zellars, Aug. 22, 1946. “Rhodes Scholarship—Permission to Compete.” ZPP.
39. Nominated by vice admiral of the navy and superintendent of the academy Aubrey W. Fitch “to represent the U.S. Naval Academy a
s an applicant for a Rhodes Scholarship from the state of Maryland.”
40. He wanted to acquire knowledge “to aid me in dealing with the problems of the present and the future . . . I will be able to study the people of the one major nation I have not yet visited.” Application copy. ZPP.
41. Sept. 9, 1947, ZFC.
42. Oct. 27, 1947, ZFC.
43. Dec. 1, 1947, ZFC.
44. Dec. 11, 1947, ZFC.
45. Letter to Mouza, Dec. 31, 1947. The Zellars was at Boston Naval Shipyard; Bud told Mouza he was staying aboard to save money. ZFC.
46. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 183.
47. “A Remembrance of Elmo Russell Zumwalt III, July 30, 1946–August 13, 1988.” Eulogy, ZFC.
48. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 183.
49. Bill Edsel, “The ‘It’ Factor: Why Marshall and His Wife Chose Pinehurst,” http://archives.thepilot.com/May2004/05-19-04/051904MyTurn.html.
50. “Why a Military Career,” Aunt Tina tape transcript 2, p. 2, A-1, ZTT.
51. Ibid.
52. “In 1946–47–48, I applied to both Law and Medical School and was accepted. Each year when the time came to make the decision to leave the service, I found myself deferring out of concern for the trend of events in the world around me.” Tape transcript, “The Cut of My Jib,” ZTT.
53. ZTT with reference to the hearings.
54. “Why a Military Career,” ZTT.
55. The ship’s history reads, “On November 21, 1950 she was placed in full commission at Charleston, South Carolina, with Lieutenant Commander Zumwalt commanding officer.”
56. Evaluation, United States Pacific Fleet, Commander Seventh Fleet, ZFC.
57. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Zumwalt, Jr., 229.
58. Letter, “Dear Scattered Clan,” Apr. 27, 1953.
59. “What Is Patent Ductus Arteriosus?” National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/pda.