COURT OF INQUIRY

"Neglecting the Possible" – U.S. Navy Mistakes
By Benjamin S. Persons
154 pp., illus., ISBN 0897452569
Sunflower University Press
President Roosevelt during his term of office had upon his desk the sign: "The buck stops here." In the case of a Navy ship captain the buck cannot go any higher.
Benjamin Persons explores the weight of command in the U.S. Navy and the fallout from disasters within the Navy. Though the use of records from Naval Court of Inquiries he brings the various and numerous details that contributed to the disasters to the forefront
The book emphasized the possible broken links in the chain of command, which resulted the total loss of ships and numerous casualties. Studied in the book were four incidents, namely, sinking of the destroyers Rhodes and Hobson, and heavy cruisers Indianapolis and Vincennes. Both destroyers were lost post World War II and the cruisers were both lost during World War II.
Persons studied the lost of the vessels from the perspective of "people failures" and not purely technical failures. As a result, this book becomes very interesting reading not only for naval types, but any organization dealing and struggling with command or management type issues. A very good study in the human sciences.
The author’s biography indicated a strong engineering background combined with U.S. Army history, which would lead an unsuspecting reader to plan for an engineering type journal. This book was nothing of the sort. It was very reader friendly, and this naval enthusiast couldn’t put the book down.If this book was to be criticized, it would that it is too short. The details leave the reader yearning for more.
Finally, I fully recommend this book for any one interested in the history of the United States Navy and the events that have shaped it into the fine fighting force today. Well done, Benjamin Persons. (RB)