THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 12, 1996 TAG: 9608100023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 31 lines
Regarding staff writer Jack Dorsey's article (July 12) story on the precautionary deployment of the Atlantic Fleet from Norfolk to avoid Hurricane Bertha:
No one has rebutted the allegations of Cmdr. Martin Drake on the alleged lack of understanding of typhoons by those of us who struggled against the elements (and the Japanese) in the Philippine Sea in late 1944. The quote attributed to Commander Drake infuriates me: ``That task force suffered a lot of damage because people didn't understand the things we know now, like storm avoidance, like staying out of the dangerous semicircle, trying to move toward the navigable semicircle.''
I would like to think that Commander Drake did not realize what he was saying. U.S. naval officers since the days of John Paul Jones have understood well the answers to the points he raises. The only differences between then and now are that we did not have the high-tech capability to track the storms back then, and we were at war trying to retake the Philippines from Japan.
Admiral Nimitz's post-typhoon message to the commanding officer of each Pacific Fleet ship was ``the necessity of understanding the Law of Storms . . his own ship, even at the expense of trying to maintain formation. In this, Nimitz said, the commanding officers could count on his support.
JOHN Q. EDWARDS
Captain, U.S. Navy (ret.)
Norfolk, July 22, 1996 by CNB