With Nimitz’s enthusiastic consent, Holland Smith was essentially kicked upstairs, promoted to command of the Fleet Marine Force, a largely administrative post that kept him from leading troops in the field. The new job was ironically similar to that of Smith’s archnemesis and alter ego Richardson. Smith could not help but feel angry about his backhanded promotion. “Good God, I work my heart out, clean up the Marianas in good style, and all I get is—Crap!” he lamented in a letter to Vandegrift.
