US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Logistics: August 1942-February 1943 431
Your interesting letter of December twentieth has been received. It is just
the kind of letter I would have expected you to write, and if any proof were
needed, proves that we now have the right man in the very difficult position of
Commander Advanced Naval Base, CACTUS.’5
Captain William M. Quigley (1911), the next Commander Naval Bases,
Solon-ions, did not arrive until 12 May 1943, and eventually received the pro-
motion to Commodore which had been urged but never approved for his
predecessors. Under his able command, the Naval Bases of the Southern
Solomons further developed and provided highly effective support, both
operational and logistic, for the New Georgia Campaign.ss
Guadalcanal was a tough area for the health of oldsters. Captain Green-
man was 54, and Captain Shock, 50. Commander Compton was only a bit
younger, at 47.
In comparison with the speed and efficiency with which the Navy built
many other Advanced Bases during its sweep up the Solomons and across
the Pacific, it cannot be denied that the building of the CACTUS-RING-
BOLT Base suffers badly. In second guessing the reasons for the slowness
with which the Advanced Base CACTUS-RINGBOLT took shape, the four
most apparent reasons are:
1. There was no adequate Base Plan developed by higher echelons
of command prior to the assault landing.
2. The Base Area was under Japanese gunfire or air attack a far greater
number of times during the first four months of building than other
bases. There was a definite lack of appreciation by the officer in
over-all charge, Rear Admiral Turner, of the part that defensive
tasks were playing in absorbing the time and energies of the Base
Commander.
3. The lack of a clear mission at the Base Commander’s level, with the
immediate senior in command (Major General Vandegrift) being
primarily concerned with work which would contribute promptly
or directly to his offensive or defensive potentialities, and the next
senior in the chain of command (Rear Admiral Turner) keeping a
constant eye to the future use of the Base.
4. A large amount of fuzziness in command lines with five seniors
(COMSOPAC, COMGENFIRSTMARDIV, COMAIRSOPAC,
mRKT to Captain T. M. Shock, letter, 24 Dec. 1942.
WSouth Solomons Sub-Area, Conrmdnd History.