# Admiral Halsey, psoriasis and midway **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471 "2009-07-18T20:33:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![\_xiao\_wenti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b782af/32.png) [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/1 "2009-07-18T20:33:42Z")
Following a comment on Family Guy (S07E14), I googled and discovered that Halsey missed the Battle of Midway because he was hospitalized due to a severe case of psoriasis. Does anyone know any more about this? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/2 "2009-07-19T00:16:24Z")
Warning: DO NOT RELY ON FAMILY GUY FOR ACCURATE HISTORICAL INFORMATION! Halsey was suffering from an attack of shingles. From personal experience I can tell you that’s a good deal more disabling than psoriasis. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/3 "2009-07-19T01:24:38Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Warning: DO NOT RELY ON FAMILY GUY FOR ACCURATE HISTORICAL INFORMATION! > > Halsey was suffering from an attack of shingles. From personal experience I can tell you that’s a good deal more disabling than psoriasis. I thought it was psoriasis ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/4 "2009-07-19T02:01:34Z")
Psoriasis can be bloody disabling, ask [Dennis Potter](http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Potter#Psoriasis) > [@](#): > > In 1962 Potter began to suffer from an acute form of psoriasis known as psoriatic arthropathy, a rare hereditary condition that affected his skin and caused arthritis in his joints. For the rest of his life, Potter was frequently in hospitals, sometimes completely unable to move and in great pain. The disease eventually ruined his hands, reducing them to what he called “clubs”. He had to learn to write by strapping a pen to his hand. Potter kept working between bouts of pain, nausea, and diarrhoea, clutching a pen in his clawed fist and writing in surprisingly neat longhand. ‘I can’t use a typewriter’, he said, ‘because my trailing fingers would hit more than one key at once’[8]. The script of Son of Man (1969), mostly written in hospital, was delivered with drops of blood and cortisone grease splashed on it. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/5 "2009-07-19T02:14:16Z")
The consensus at this point in time seems to be shingles rather than psoriasis, but absent the relevant medical records it will probably remain unresolved. Whatever it was that beached Halsey just before Midway, I consider it serendipitous in the extreme: unlike Spruance, who retired (temporarily) to the east after concluding air operations on the 4th, Halsey would most likely have driven full speed to the west — and perhaps into the big guns of Kondo and Yamamoto’s surface forces, just in time for a night gun battle. Or perhaps not. The situation in the Japanese fleet was pretty fluid, and everybody had to be aware of their air cover situation (i.e., they had none). But in retrospect, Spruance seems to have made precisely the right call: the USN had accomplished its main objectives, and the prospect of future gains didn’t justify hanging around. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/6 "2009-07-19T02:16:07Z")
I think in the movie “Midway,” they said he was suffering from poison ivy. I guess they thought shingles would have been over people’s heads. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/7 "2009-07-19T02:27:14Z")
Admiral Halsey notified me he had to have a berth or he couldn’t get to sea. ---
**Author:** ![CateAyo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@CateAyo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CateAyo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/8 "2009-07-19T12:56:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Admiral Halsey notified me he had to have a berth or he couldn’t get to sea. Live a little, be a gypsy, get around… (it had been nearly 10 and a half hours) ---
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/9 "2009-07-19T19:18:34Z")
He also missed the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He fell vcitim to a Japanese ploy to keep him away from the his assignment in the Gulf. ---
**Author:** ![\_xiao\_wenti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b782af/32.png) [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/10 "2009-07-20T00:09:18Z")
@kunilu == I did google and the sites that I found said psoriasis. Shingles sounds sufficiently debilitating for me. Thanks for the help. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/11 "2009-07-20T00:21:17Z")
I have psoriatic arthritis, and let me tell you, it can be quite debilitating. It’s not just a bit of dry skin, i get inflammation in virtually every joint in my body – knuckles, knees, elbows, feet, shoulders, you name it. Sometimes it extends to tendons. I’ve never been crippled to the point of hospitalization, but I have to stay on inflammatories all the time, and I still usually feel like I’ve been picking rocks for 8 hours in the back 40. I’ve had shingles too. It sucked, but psoriatic arthritis is worse. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/12 "2009-07-20T00:27:59Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > I think in the movie “Midway,” they said he was suffering from poison ivy. I guess they thought shingles would have been over people’s heads. I read this three times before I caught the pun. Well played! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/13 "2009-07-20T00:45:21Z")
General Chuikov, the Soviet commander of the 62nd Army which held Stalingrad and slugged it out with the German 6th, developed severe eczema on his hands from the stress of that battle. It was so bad that he wore white gloves to conceal them. I guess what I’m saying is that WWII was not good for the skin. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/14 "2009-07-20T05:13:15Z")
Point being, “Psoriasis” (if, in fact, that’s what Halsey had) can be seriously debilitating- it’s NOT as if Halsey was malingering, or sitting out the war with a case of dandruff. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/15 "2009-07-20T22:29:14Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Point being, “Psoriasis” (if, in fact, that’s what Halsey had) can be seriously debilitating- it’s NOT as if Halsey was malingering, or sitting out the war with a case of dandruff. > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I have psoriatic arthritis, and let me tell you, it can be quite debilitating. It’s not just a bit of dry skin, i get inflammation in virtually every joint in my body – knuckles, knees, elbows, feet, shoulders, you name it. Sometimes it extends to tendons. I’ve never been crippled to the point of hospitalization, but I have to stay on inflammatories all the time, and I still usually feel like I’ve been picking rocks for 8 hours in the back 40. > > I’ve had shingles too. It sucked, but psoriatic arthritis is worse. I have psoriasis… and it can get pretty bad. I could see someone getting severely sidlined (at least sidlined enough that they couldn’t actively fight) with it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/16 "2009-07-20T22:33:40Z")
As long as we’re discussing Halsey and documentary filmmaking, what was Captain Ramius talking about when he said “Halsey acted stupidly” in _Hunt for Red October_? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/17 "2009-07-20T22:45:20Z")
The relevant text from the book: > [@The Hunt for Red October](#): > > "Tell me your books,” Ramius ordered. > “ **Options and Decisions** , **Doomed Eagles** , and a new one coming out this year, **Fighting Sailor** , a biography of Admiral Halsey. My first one was about the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It was reviewd in **Morskoi Sbornik** , I understand. It dealt with the nature of tactical decisions made under combat situations. There’s supposed to be a dozen copies at the Frunze Library.” > Ramius was quiet for a moment. “Ah, I know this book. Yes, I read parts of it. You were wrong, Ryan. Halsey acted stupidly.” I have nothing further to offer on it, though. ---
**Author:** ![\_xiao\_wenti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b782af/32.png) [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/18 "2009-07-20T23:39:41Z")
It was my psoriasis that prompted the search. Mine is severe, in terms of real estate, but no debilitating problems. I was wondering if he tripped over flakes and broke a leg or something. For those of you with Psoriasic arthritis, you have my sympathy. What I have is not severe and limited to my hands and feet. ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/19 "2009-07-21T00:00:00Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > As long as we’re discussing Halsey and documentary filmmaking, what was Captain Ramius talking about when he said “Halsey acted stupidly” in _Hunt for Red October_? Presumably for Halsey’s actions at Leyte Gulf. Halsey’s job was to protect the landing beaches, the supply ships, the support ships etc. Instead he went sailing off to try and catch some carriers. He had more than sufficient forces to do both, and he even managed to leave everyone (including his boss back in Pearl Harbor) with the impression that he had left a powerful force to screen the Leyte landings. Despite plenty of evidence that the carrier forces were bait to draw off US warships, and that there were significant forces trying to sneak into the gulf, off he went. In fact Halsey reacted in exactly the fashion the Japanese had hoped. The fact that the landing force wasn’t destroyed was due only to Japanese mistakes and some absurdly courageous actions by the first US ships they ran into. I always liked Leahy’s (Chief of Staff at the time) quote regarding the affair, “We didn’t lose the war for that but I don’t know why we didn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/20 "2009-07-21T00:04:23Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > The consensus at this point in time seems to be shingles rather than psoriasis, but absent the relevant medical records it will probably remain unresolved. > > Whatever it was that beached Halsey just before Midway, I consider it serendipitous in the extreme: unlike Spruance, who retired (temporarily) to the east after concluding air operations on the 4th, Halsey would most likely have driven full speed to the west — and perhaps into the big guns of Kondo and Yamamoto’s surface forces, just in time for a night gun battle. > > Or perhaps not. The situation in the Japanese fleet was pretty fluid, and everybody had to be aware of their air cover situation (i.e., they had none). But in retrospect, Spruance seems to have made precisely the right call: the USN had accomplished its main objectives, and the prospect of future gains didn’t justify hanging around. In terms of Halsey vs Spruance, we can all agree that the right Admiral was in charge at Midway. However, at both the battles of Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf, the wrong admiral was in charge. At Philippine Sea, the cautious Spruance failed to pursue the Japanese carriers positioned to the northwest of the Marianas because he feared that a non-existent Japanese battle group might approach the Saipan landings from around the southwest. At Leyte Gulf, the aggressive Halsey set out after the now-decoy Japanese carrier force while a real Japanese battleship group slipped through the Philippines to threaten the thinly defended landings on Leyte. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471.md?page=2)