As the participants took their places, one correspondent noted that there were more three- and four-star American generals and admirals standing on the little veranda deck than the United States had ever commissioned prior to the Second World War. Many of the navy’s leading figures of the Pacific War were present, including Turner, McCain, Lockwood, Radford, Bogan, Towers, the two Shermans, and the two Spragues—but notably lacking Spruance and Mitscher, whom Nimitz had asked to stay away, in case a well-timed kamikaze attack should decapitate the high command at one stroke. The Marine Corps
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