# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/61 "2018-05-04T18:28:14Z")
I’ve seen pictures of sailors during the Pearl Harbor attack firing pistols at Japanese planes. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/62 "2018-05-04T19:41:50Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I’ve seen pictures of sailors during the Pearl Harbor attack firing pistols at Japanese planes. When Dad was living in a tent in New Guinea they fired M-1s, a Thompson and 1911As at aircraft during air raids. They hit a guy who bailed out. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/63 "2018-05-05T01:54:31Z")
I am watching that from the start. Guadalcanal, 1942. Dad was in a tent in New Guinea with the 5th USAAF. He saw a Japanese guy rifling his tent, they both ran in opposite directions. He had teeth fall out and they weren’t wearing uniforms because of fungus growing on them. I wish I had been knowledgeable enough about WWII to ask him about operation tower and the battle of the Bismark Sea. He came home when his little brother was killed in an aircraft training accident. Dad died when I was sixteen. We saw a B-52 at my grandfather’s farm near Jacksonville AFB. I was awestruck; he had seen so much, shoveling brains out of a B-25 and stealing Cokes out of MacArthur’s B-17 that he was not impressed. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/64 "2018-05-05T02:00:08Z")
Typo: a B-58 Hustler at Grandfather’s farm. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/65 "2018-05-05T02:11:46Z")
16:72 Is that George Marshall? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/66 "2018-05-05T02:19:18Z")
Sorry to post so much, but 17:32, MacArthurs B-17! Dad worked on it. Landing (I think Australia) the radio operator left the antenna unretracted. It was a long wire with a weight on the end, reeled out in the air, reeled in before landing. The antenna wrapped around a tree, and the radio was pulled out of the aircraft. Dad was working on it in 100 degree heat. The B-17 had the bomb bay welded shut, with a sofa and a refrigerator in the bomb bay. Dad’s Sargent took two Cokes from the frig and he and Dad drank them. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/67 "2018-05-05T10:40:26Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > [Eric Idle voice]Three, sir![/EIv] And three [damaged](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar), all the CAs they had. The three CLs and four BBs were relatively unscathed. > > In Kurita’s defense, he wasn’t supposed to be facing much at all in opposition. Halsey’s main force was supposed to have left to chase down the Northern force’s bait of mostly planeless CVs (and it did) leaving Kurita’s Center force free to fall upon the amphibious fleet making the landing on Leyte. When you stick your hand in a hole expecting to pull out a rabbit and instead grab a yowling, spitting, clawing ball of aggression, you’re going to think bobcat, not house cat. Agreed. And the multi-layered smokescreens took away much of Kurita’s striking power. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/68 "2018-05-05T18:42:08Z")
> [@Capn\_Carl](#): > > Agreed. And the multi-layered smokescreens took away much of Kurita’s striking power. Oh, yeah, the Yanks were lucky and did everything right defensively, but if Kurita hadn’t funked out Taffy 3 was screwed period. If Kurita had his head screwed on straight, he would have had his destroyers form a vanguard screen before engaging and let them deal with the US counterattack. The Japanese advantage in even tin cans would have been decisive. The heavies could have focused on reaching out and touching up the carriers. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/69 "2018-05-05T20:48:17Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > …if Kurita hadn’t funked out Taffy 3 was screwed period… Absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/70 "2018-05-09T02:47:07Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Absolutely. Agreed. When Kurita ordered General Attack, he really blew it. On the other hand, Taffy 3 was only 2/3 of his opposition. The other Taffys could batter him from a safe distance. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/71 "2018-05-09T11:38:57Z")
> [@Capn\_Carl](#): > > Agreed. When Kurita ordered General Attack, he really blew it. On the other hand, Taffy 3 was only 2/3 of his opposition. The other Taffys could batter him from a safe distance. Correction: Taffy 3 was 1/3. ---
**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:** [May 9, 2018, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/72 "2018-05-09T13:33:08Z")
> [@RedSwinglineOne](#): > > Actually, they just said skin disease. . . . True, but it is reasonably implied that it’s poison ivy as he complains about itching, and he complains about the thick calamine-looking lotion on his hands and neck. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/73 "2018-05-09T13:43:25Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > …he complains about the thick calamine-looking lotion on his hands and neck. My Grandmother put that stuff on me in the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471/74 "2018-05-10T01:20:15Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > True, but it is reasonably implied that it’s poison ivy as he complains about itching, and he complains about the thick calamine-looking lotion on his hands and neck. Calamine might have been applied to nearly any skin condition back then. And plenty of skin conditions cause itching, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/admiral-halsey-psoriasis-and-midway/503471.md?page=3)