Always thought Naval War College should have been studying this campaign, instead of the Leyte Gulf battles, because this one the adversaries capabilities were much more evenly matched.

And please don’t overlook the efforts of ships like the escort carriers that shuttled fresh aircraft and ordnance into the area.

The behind-the-scenes war of WWII was always as important as the fighting at the front. As John B. Lundstrom points out in his “Black Shoe Carrier Admiral,” the movements and decisions of Fletcher and Ghormley were dictated as much by supplies — and the slow growing thereof– as any character issues allegedly identified by historians. Sure Halsey was more aggressive; he also had more to work with thanks to Nimitz’ and Ghormley’s buildups of supplies. And more replacements for the ships and men he recklessly used up.

SE Morison said is best:

“Strategically, as seen from Pearl Harbor or Constitution Avenue, Guadalcanal was worth every ship, plane and life it cost. The enemy was stopped in his many-taloned reach for the antipodes.

Sometimes I dream of a great battle monument on Guadalcanal; a granite monolith on which the names of all who fell and of all the ships that rest in Ironbottom Sound may be carved. At other times I feel that the jagged cone of Savo Island, forever brooding over the blood-thickened waters of the Sound, is the best monument to the men and ships who here rolled back the enemy tide.”