Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

MacArthur’s tardy arrival on board the Baltimore is one of the most familiar scenes of the Pacific War. Sam Rosenman, a longtime FDR aide and speechwriter, recalled that MacArthur’s arrival was heralded by a chorus of sirens, “and there raced onto the dock and screeched to a stop a motorcycle escort and the longest open car I have ever seen. In the front was a chauffeur in khaki, and in the back one lone figure—MacArthur. There were no aides or attendants. The car traveled some distance around the open space and stopped at the gangplank.”34 Every other flag and general officer involved in the ceremony was turned out in immaculate dress uniform. MacArthur, in the heat of a Hawaiian summer afternoon, wore his famous brown leather flight jacket over khaki. The corncob pipe was not in evidence on this occasion, but he wore his familiar aviator sunglasses and his battered Philippine field marshal’s cap with a mass of “scrambled eggs” (gold braid) above the visor.