Talk:William Halsey Jr.

message: Removed 'returned to the combat zone' because it never mentioned him leaving it (previous sentence discussed Battle of Leyte Gulf. DJ Clayworth 16:02, 5 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Changes

message: Hi:
I may be completely out to lunch, but I seem recall reading that he and a lot of his friends spent a lot of effort  and column inches after the war explaining some of his more difficult to explain decisions; and in putting a stick in Spruance's wheel. I don't know if it's true, so perhaps someone who knows more about the period could say and cite sources if needed.
---
I don't recall anything about criticism of Spruance--the two of them had known each other since WW I and were good friends, 
in fact Halsey recommended Spruance as his replacement for the Midway operation when he (Halsey) was hospitalized.  However 
Halsey did go a bit out of his way, post-war, to criticize Kincaid's conduct at Leyte Gulf.  Kincaid was quite hurt by the 
criticism.  I believe I read this in Hanson Baldwin's "Battles Lost and Won;" could look it up if there is any interest.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.6.252.120 (talk) 02:14, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Post War 

message: Reason replaced at Midway - We say psoriaisis here and shingles on the Ray Spruance page  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.136.9.193 (talk) 00:00, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Neither is correct.  See below.Gunbirddriver (talk) 01:54, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

text: Then all of the pages need to be updated with the correct information.  Pick some verbiage and add some to refute shingles and other skin disorders that have been referenced in his bios elsewhere.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.95.150.205 (talk) 22:41, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text:  First off, I do not know what condition the admiral suffered from.  The description is of a life long skin condition that caused significant pain, to the extent that he could not sleep, and that resulted in a great deal of weight loss.  Psoriasis is life long, but it is a wax and waning non-painful plaque type skin disease that may be unsightly but is not at all debilitating.  He would not have pain, he would have no trouble sleeping, he would not lose weight.  Shingles can be quite painful.  The lesions may last weeks, and one can have persistent pain in the area of the outbreak, the post-herpetic neuralgia that may last months, but shingles is not a life long, recurrent, wax and waning condition.  One would have an outbreak and then the outbreak would resolve.   As I said below, my best guess would be an atopic dermatitis that was exacerbated by stress, but that is simply a guess based on the description of the symptoms and without ever seeing the lesions.  The verbiage "A debilitating chronic skin condition" appears to be the best answer available for now.  If you would like to replace the various pages you mention with that then by all means do so.  Gunbirddriver (talk) 04:09, 16 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Shingles

message: Reworked this section to bring it in line with both the article in WP and what actually happened.  It read like a Halsey victory when it was far from.--Lepeu1999 19:36, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Leyte 

message: Nice work by Ed in updating the article, but there are virtually no sources cited.--Lepeu1999 (talk) 15:45, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I checked the edits that I made, and nothing I did eliminated cited material -- in fact, the large majority of what I did was pure copyediting, layout adjustment and so on: I basically moved material around and smoothed it out rather than deleting or adding substantive material.  When I did add factual material, it was all related to films, and the data all came from IMDB, which I believe is ref'd already.  I'll check -- if not, I'll add it.  Otherwise, nothing I did really effected citable stuff. Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) (talk / cont) 01:25, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Citations 

message: It seems that Halsey has more decorations on his uniform than are listed in the actual article. Just curious if there is a reason for that, or are the ones he has on his uniform in '45 unknown at this time? I recognize his parachute wings but how would he get them, being in the navy his entire career? Are there things missing in his biography or are those the wrong wings?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Itchy01ca (talk • contribs) 21:29, 1 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: The Navy has parachute wings of its own.  Not sure from the pic if they are they Navy ones or if he's wearing ones from another service.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.166.63.251 (talk) 02:51, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Those are not parachute wings, they're Naval Aviator wings.Weloytty (talk) 12:45, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

text: DISPUTE ENTRY: I re-did the decorations section according to information from http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/halsey-w.htm but the page, along with this Wiki page, does not match his uniform in the color image. I think we need to dig a little deeper here and find out his actual awards. Evan.oltmanns (talk) 05:21, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

text: I added the two ribbons to the decorations section and these are the ones shown in the image . These are: On the bottom left, the Order of the British Empire (he received the Knight Commander of the British Empire as listed in http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/halsey-w.htm); and in the bottom center, the Order of the Savior from Greece (now called Order of the Redeemer).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.48.109.157 (talk) 15:48, 18 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Decorations 

message: I removed the post nominal letters GBE, referring to his honorary status as Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, from the introduction of this article as Mr. Halsey was not closely associated with the United Kingdom in the sense required by the Manual of Style for biographies.  The full style guidelines for the use of post nominal letters can be viewed here: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies)#Post-nominal_initials. TrufflesTheLamb (talk) 20:25, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Good idea, considering nobody in the U.S. knows what "GBE" means, anyway.71.221.64.172 (talk) 22:51, 20 June 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Order of the British Empire 

message: You report that Admiral Halsey graduated from the United States Naval Academy in "1904".
The link to "Seven Society" which you report that he belonged while at the Academy, you report was not founded until "1905", after he had left the Academy.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Docent62 (talk • contribs) 15:43, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed.   Bull Halsey does not strike me as the secret society type.  Will return the "Seven Society" mention if a reliable reference can answer the problem with dates and can show that he had signed up to be a member of the secret society. Gunbirddriver (talk) 01:44, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dates Conflict 

message: "Earlier, he had commanded the South Pacific Theater during desperate times." Desperate for whom? -- PBS (talk) 10:25, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  POV 

message: There are a wide range of comments in various sources on the skin condition that Halsey had.  Clearly it waxed and waned, was present throughout his adult life, could be very painful, caused loss of sleep and significantly debilitated his health.  This is definitely not a description of psoriasis.  It is not a description of shingles.  An atopic dermititis exacerbated by stress is the best answer from the description available.   We should not claim it to be shingles or psoriasis without a very reliable source that understands medicine.  I would think that describing it as a debilitating skin condition is the best answer for now.  Gunbirddriver (talk) 01:51, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Skin condition

message: WTF is "IJN aviation?" This is jargon. Please either spell it out or use a different term.71.221.64.172 (talk) 22:18, 20 June 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  IJN aviation 

message: Hello - With the new note (thank you) on the "Big Blue Fleet," the blue fleet would seem then to include Kinkaid's 7th Fleet (aka MacArthur's Navy).  Is it now too expansive a term to use?   Thoughts? JMOprof (talk) 12:19, 17 May 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, it is a general term commonly used in the 1941-42 Navy for the fleet that was building and with which they expected to win the war.  It was the fleet based in Pearl, and when it came into being it was the 5th Fleet or the 3rd Fleet, depending on the command.  It did not include those naval assets of the 7th Fleet in the southwest Pacific, nor naval assets operating in the Atlantic, though ships transferred back and forth between these commands.Gunbirddriver (talk) 19:50, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Big Blue Fleet 

message: Substituted at 10:39, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment

message: Some discussion of why, exactly, Halsey was promoted to 5-star rank (Fleet Admiral) is in order. He and Omar Bradley were the only 5-star promotions that took place in peacetime. Five-star ranks were legally specified as wartime-only ranks, so special acts of Congress were needed to do this. In Bradley's case , the reason was one of protocol-- he became the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs at a time when some 5-stars from the war were still on active service and would be subordinate to him legally. Even those raised to 5-star rank during the war were done in relation to their positions. But in Halsey's case, I don't think he even had an active command when he was promoted in 1945, 3 months after the war had ended. Why was he made a Fleet Admiral?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Venqax (talk • contribs) 16:29, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: The reference I am just about to attach at the end of this note, taken from Fleet Admiral (United States), says that four "five-star ranks" were each given to the Navy and the Army at the end of the war. "Three were easily chosen: Leahy, King, and Nimitz". King had to nominate to the Secretary of the Navy a fourth, either Halsey or Spruance. Halsey got the nod. ().Buckshot06 (talk) 05:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why 5-Star Promotion