It was used, and continues to be used, as the basis for innumerable conversation scenes in movies, TV programs and books between a usually well-intentioned braggart and a wiser listener who sometimes forcefully reminds the talker to shut up...At times the over-zealous blatherskite turns out to be someone who was schooled extensively in the value of words, but in a moment of mindlessness says the wrong thing to the listening ear of someone who is guaranteed to irretrievably repeat it to a widespread audience...Such an opportunity arose to Morton Tinslar Seligman, a US Navy Commander and Annapolis graduate with 23 years of continuous service and recipient of two Navy Crosses...Seligman had only recently left the doomed USS Lexington (CV-2) during the Battle of the Coral Sea in which, as Executive Officer of the "Lady Lex," he was credited with saving countless lives due to his efficient, cool-headed management of damage control operations...He was one of the last men to step off the ship before it sank into its grave on the seabed...
Following the battle, Seligman was berthed on USS Barnett (APA-5) for passage to the US and reassignment...Other survivors included embedded war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, Stanley Johnston, and flight leader of the Lexington's dive bombers, LCmdr. Robert E. Dixon who famously uttered the memorable phrase, "Scratch one flattop!" as the JIN Shoho burst into flame from its bombing...Available quarters were scarce for passengers aboard Barnett, and Seligman bunked with Johnston...From there most of the details of what happened next were cloaked in secrecy due to the sensitive nature of the developing scene, but certain facts are a part of public record...Much classified material and information was known to many of those aboard the Barnett, but most of them knew to whom they could speak, as well as when and where...Any information at all could conceivably be used by the enemy if it became known...Many meetings and debriefings were held aboard the Barnett in closed quarters in preparation for the endless number of reports that must be written and assimilated among the various agencies for analysis and policy decisions...Those attendees all certainly knew their responsibilities and limits...
As a higher ranking line officer of the US Navy with a security clearance granting him access to classified data, Seligman was well aware that Japanese eyes and ears were open and waiting for any scrap of information previously unknown to them...On 6/7/1942, five days after Johnston's arrival in San Diego on Barnett, under the blaring front page headline trumpeting the US victory in the Battle of Midway, a separate story headlined "Navy Had Word Of Jap Plan To Strike At Sea" told of the foreknowledge of Japanese plans that allowed the US Navy to plan an ambush at sea which ultimately destroyed four first line aircraft carriers of the JIN...Anyone reading this story, among them Japanese agents who scoured every American news source daily, could have, following a moment's thought, have surmised that if the American forces knew of the plans ahead of time, they must either be reading intercepted Japanese coded messages, or have a spy network within the Japanese war ministry feeding them information...Either way this information could be devastating to the sensitive information gathering process used by the Allied forces to plan actions against the enemy...The author of the story and his publisher would also know this, and must somehow be accountable for the potential damage to the Allied war effort...
The US Naval Historical Foundation tells three separate versions of the story on its website nodding to the fact that the incident has been shrouded in mystery and embarrassment for over 70 years...In the first, Johnston himself in his book, "Queen of the Flattops," admits that he saw classified messages listing the Japanese order of battle for Midway and US estimates of the Japanese battle strength two weeks before the battle took place, giving him the basis for the story he filed with the Chicago Tribune...The federal prosecutor assigned the job of investigating the matter by the US Attorney General took the generally accepted position that Johnston's bunkmate, Seligman, either deliberately or inadvertently let slip a copy of the decoded messages from Adm. Nimitz during the voyage...The second version is similar, differing in that Seligman made the same blunder aboard USS Chester (CA-27) during transit away from the Coral Sea action scene, but before boarding Barnett...This is recorded in the biography, "Nimitz," by EB Potter...
The third version is mostly hearsay and usually said to be notable only because of its source...A civilian advisor to then Navy Secretary Frank Knox told of a meeting with Johnston 15 years after the event in which Johnston said he was rescued from the sea by USS New Orleans (CA-32) and transported to Pearl Harbor...During this trip he was said to have gained access to the coded messages and memorized them to use as notes for the story he later wrote and filed...The civilian did not make this conversation known immediately, but 20 years later related it to a doctor who then wrote of it for the US Naval Institute's publication, "Proceedings"...The civilian's credibility arises from his identity as Adlai E. Stevenson II, former Illinois Governor, Ambassador to the UN and twice a failed candidate for US President as a Democrat...
The generally believed version holds that Seligman, for whatever cause, released the messages to Johnston who, aided by the willingness of the Chicago Tribune, released this vital military secret to possible interception by the Japanese enemy for the sake of either readership numbers, or possibly as a source of embarrassment for President FD Roosevelt, who shared a mutual hatred with the then-editor of the Tribune, Robert McCormick...Neither Seligman, Johnston nor any other player in this real-life drama was ever indicted or prosecuted in the interest of keeping the story as low-key as possible, avoiding the revelation of its importance to national security in a public trial...Seligman never received another sea assignment, or promotion, retiring in 1944 before the war's end...CNO Adm. Ernest King personally intervened with the Navy promotions board to see to it that Seligman never advanced, although he was granted a tombstone promotion to Captain after his retirement in view of his service record before the Tribune incident...He had a minor career in Hollywood filmmaking both before and after the war as a technical advisor...Johnston reported the Latin American scene as a foreign correspondent for the Tribune until he returned to become grounds manager at Robert McCormick's Illinois estate...He died from an apparent heart attack shortly after...Despite urging from President Roosevelt to press for espionage charges against the Tribune's editorial staff, no further legal proceedings were carried out...All grand jury documents concerning the incident were sealed until 2017...
The results of the investigation had been sealed within the halls of NARA for 75 years before a court ordered them released for viewing by the public...It can now be revealed that Johnston insisted at the time that he found a scrap of paper detailing Nimitz' messages, copied them and later used them to write his story...He claimed to have not known of the secrecy involved, and only remembered the notes after hearing of the battle...Presenting what he knew to his story editor, he wrote his article then destroyed the notes...All a likely story, but unprovable otherwise for the prosecutor without corroborating evidence...Seligman's culpability could neither be proven but was assumed to be so by CNO King, who broke a personal oath to never use his influence over promotions to see to it that Seligman's Navy career was finished...The coded message from Nimitz, numbered 311221, was not intended to have been placed aboard USS Barnett, but the decoding equipment needed to read it had by chance been placed on that ship...As it turned out, the story was never even heard of in Japan by anyone who could have known its importance and made preparations to secure further messages...The JIN changed their operations code shortly before the story broke merely because the change was due on a timetable...
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