James Starnes was a Navy reserve Officer at Emory University and now he was in charge of working out the logistics of the formal end of a war that had killed over 60 million people.
At first he went with ceremonial white uniforms and swords, but before it took place, he got word that Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific and the one who was to take the Japanese surrender, wanted officers to wear their daily service clothes-- knaki button-up shirts with open collars and no ties reportedly saying, "We fought them in our khaki uniforms, and we'll accept their surrender in our khaki uniforms."
Starnes worked very closely with the USS Missouri's captain, Stuart "Sunshine" Murray and the admiral's staff in getting the various parties as well as nearly 200 correspondents and photographers from all over the world on and off the battle ship.
He likened the job to being a symphony conductor MacArthur made it clear he didn't want the Japanese dignitaries on the deck more than five seconds before 9 a.m., but he also didn't want them arriving late.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
No comments:
Post a Comment