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(More customer reviews)Thomas Wildenberg has done an invaluable service to U.S. naval history, and to the memory of an astonishing admiral by reconstructing the life and contributions of Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves.
Reeves story is one of those true stories that is in many ways stranger than fiction. Seemingly at every significant point and involved with every significant development in the U.S. Navy (with a few notable exceptions) from the Spanish-American War to the verge of World War II, Admiral Reeves' contributions have shocking breadth.
Reeves deserves much of the credit for the USS Oregon's remarkable machinery performance in rounding South America, and then in chasing down Cervera's cruisers in battle. His talent for mechanical engineering contributed to the revolution in American fire control after that war. He served as fleet ordnance officer twice, in a comparatively junior rank. He became a torpedo expert. He helped automate much of the back-breaking process of coaling. He commissioned the turbo-electric testbed collier Jupiter (a ship he would be associated with again under stranger circumstances). He commanded no less than three battleships (venerable Oregon, the second USS Maine, and dreadnought North Dakota) then went on to be the naval attache in Rome. Later he attended the Naval War College, where he proved a deadly tactician on the game floor.
All of this would have made a full career and marked him for flag rank, but then Reeves did yet another remarkable thing: he volunteered for aviation duty. Taking control of the aviation squadrons of the fleet and the first U.S. carrier, the Langley (the collier Jupiter, after conversion), Reeves relentlessly expanded the envelope of what the ship, the planes, and the pilots were able to do. Remarkably, this was often over the protests of the supposedly forward-thinking original aviators. Reeves then served as the aviation expert on the delegation to the abortive 1927 Naval Arms Limitation talks in Geneva. Placed in charge of carrier aviation again as the big carriers Lexington and Saratoga entered the fleet, Reeves pioneered the operations of independent carrier task forces and launched a stunning raid on the Panama Canal that presaged later uses of carrier air power. Another author once noted that no other man contributed so much to the development of carrier air power in the Navy as Reeves, and Wildenberg proves that statement correct. Reeves formulated and provoked his men to answer the "Thousand and One Questions" necessary to achieve the feat.
For many officers, those achievements alone would have made a career, and Reeves seemed headed for twilight on the General Board, where he again made valuable contributions before being tapped as the commander of the Battle Force, the Navy's prestigious core of battleships, and subsequently the highest operational command: Commander-In-Chief of the U.S. Fleet. In these roles his watchword was readiness, specifically for war, and he greatly advanced Navy preparedness, trimmed excess paperwork and implemented realistic exercises. He also exposed the unrealistic strategy for moving directly to the Philippines as logistically impossible, while simultaneously doing much to advance mobilization and logistics planning for war. He retired with the utmost prestige and the admiration of all but a tiny clique of jealous fellow admirals after 46 years, only to be called out of retirement by Roosevelt to run Lend-Lease, and serve on the Roberts Commission investigating Pearl Harbor.
Reeves' only recorded failure appears to be his marriage, but little is known of this sad story due to the lack of letters to illustrate it. He did, however, have two fine sons, one of whom sadly died as an Army aviator in a crash.
Much credit is due the author for pulling so much from truly minimal sources. Regretably, Admiral Reeves was not much given to writing and instead a great speaker, as Wildenberg shows. Reeves reticence with the written word sadly leaves tantalizing gaps in the record. Wildenberg perceptively, intelligently and cautiously speculates where appropriate, while clearly informing the reader that he is doing so.
A resounding "well done" to the author for informing me of a man who has now joined my pantheon of naval heroes.
Click Here to see more reviews about: All the Factors of Victory: Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves and the Origins of Carrier Airpower
Spans naval developments from the Spanish-American War through World War IIAddresses the development of carrier tactics in the U.S. Navy between the world warsAdm. Joseph Mason Reeves (1872–1948) took command of the U.S. Navy's nascent carrier arm during a critical period, transforming it from a small auxiliary command in support of the battle line into a powerful strike force. Until the carrier commanders of World War II proved their mettle, Reeves's expertise in the use of the aircraft carrier in naval tactics was unequalled. All the Factors of Victory is the first full-length biography of this eminent naval officer.
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