US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

278 Amphibians Came To Conquer
planners toward offensive amphibious operations, in general, and particularly
toward initiating these from the South Pacific and Southwest Pacific Areas.
This planning assisted mightily in the development of a naval belief in the
practicality of the over-all concept of PESTILENCE.
When AdmiraI Nimitz arrived back in Hawaii after his 23–24 April conference
with Admiral King in San Francisco carrying the specific directive
to COMSOPAC to “prepare to launch a major amphibious offensive against
positions held by the Japanese,” detailed staff studies were undertaken at
CINCPAC Headquarters to carry out this broad task, starting in the Santa
Cruz and lower Solomon Islands. These anticipatory staff studies together
with subsequent CINCPAC and COMSOPAC lively actions, made possible
the telescoping from three months to three weeks of the necessary opera-
tional planning at the amphibious level for the WATCHTOWER Operation.
For four days, 5–8 July, the senior members of Rear Admiral
Turner’s staff, Linscott, Doyle, Weir and Harris, worked alongside members
of CINCPAC staff in the CINCPAC Headquarters.
TurnerCollection
~e~ly Tarrier at Tongatabu, Tongs Islands with Brigadier General Benjamin
C. Lockwood, AUS, and Commander Charles E. Olsen, USN, boand fo~
Guadaicanal, 12 July 1942.