Witness to Neptune’s Inferno
The Pacific War Diary of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin, USS Atlanta (CL 51)
David F. Winkler
Casemate, Havertown, Pennsylvania, 2024, 294 pages
Book Review published on: May 24, 2024
Diaries are useful for primary source historical research but are rarely standalone publications. When people write diaries, usually their main purpose is to record, rather than create prose for future readers. Diaries are usually made palatable by talented authors providing context and story for a particular audience. The author David Winkler accomplishes this endeavor with his book Witness to Neptune’s Inferno: The Pacific War Diary of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin USS Atlanta (CL 51). He utilizes Lloyd Mustin’s diary as the core premise of the overall book but interweaves the overall Mustin family history, Lloyd Mustin’s personal history, and the historical context of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theater of World War II.
The author provides a great historical context for not only that light cruiser (USS Atlanta) but the overall naval posturing in the decades leading up to World War II. This is accomplished in the first and second chapters to provide the reader an overall context for subsequent diary readings. It speaks to the Washington and London naval treaties in the overall strategic allocation of naval forces in the Pacific theater. This had a nested and layered effect on naval construction and the type of naval vessel that Mustin ended up on. Winkler then narrows the scope of the conflict from theater strategic to the operational situation in the Guadalcanal campaign.
The Mustin family history is impressive. I once asked a cultural advisor in Iraq where he was from, and he replied, “Damascus.” I found this odd. How did a Syrian get cleared to work with us? He was, in fact, Iraqi, but his family migrated from Damascus to Jordan, then to Iraq in the nineteenth century. This question had a completely different meaning to a non-Westerner with an extended time horizon. To most cultures in the world, a person’s origins are immensely important. Winkler gives justice to the origins of the Mustins by tracing them back to their original French Huguenot roots. Mustin’s family was involved in naval operations during the war of 1812, the Civil War, Spanish American war, World War II, and Cold War. Mustin ended up making flag officer along with his son and grandson. This is a great overall context for the diary and truly adds meaning to the overall story. Winkler conducted comprehensive and detailed historical research to add this degree of depth and richness to the overall story.
Mustin provides an endearing look at the different slang and vernacular at the time. He uses the term “dope” to describe information or situational awareness on something, for example, get the dope on the sinking of the USS Wasp. He also uses the term “buck fever” to describe itching for a fight in some form of combat and the desire for his vessel to actively go forth and seek engagement. Inversely, the non-slang vocabulary demonstrates an incredible sophistication in our language and is a testament to Mustin’s educational upbringing. For instance, he uses the word pusillanimous, defined as lacking courage, to describe the overall command climate under Vice Adm. Robert Ghormley. Conversely, Winkler himself purposely mirrors the vernacular of Mustin by matching his sophistication. He utilizes such words as “superfluous” to describe needless and delaying gunnery procedures during the battle of Santa Cruz.
The diary richly describes so many timeless, classical, and archetypal aspects of war that anyone from the Napoleonic soldier to the Iraq War veteran could probably identify and relate to them. Mustin portrays the previously mentioned aspect of endless waiting and boring routine only to experience a few brief moments of combat. I would describe this as the 95 percent/5 percent rule. This is where 95 percent of the time is spent in boring routine followed by 5 percent experiencing the unbelievable adrenaline-induced excitement of combat. Unfortunately for the USS Atlanta, its first major surface engagement would be its last. Additionally, Mustin describes how a certain officer received a medal, and Mustin and others felt it was blatantly undeserved. He also relays the disappointment of having shore liberty canceled at the last minute because an epidemic broke out at that particular port. Adding insult to injury is the inability to even smoke a cigarette at night because of blackout operations. The diary addresses the natural divide or rift between regular and reserve officers and how that divide diminishes as the war progresses and the experience gap closes.
Lloyd’s diary is full of confirming authenticities. For instance, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp was sunk by a spread of Japanese long-lance torpedoes on 15 September 1942. Mustin didn’t discover this fact, even though they were relatively close in the same operational sector until 20 September 1942. This is very realistic, because battlefield information must work its way through myriad command and communication systems.
Lastly, this book contains a host of leadership and operational lessons. One cringed when Adm. Chester Nimitz visited Ghormley, and Ghormley couldn’t sufficiently answer Nimitz’s questions relating to overall situational awareness and understanding. This uncomfortable feeling further intensified when Nimitz flew to Guadalcanal from Noumea, realizing that Ghormley had not conducted a command visit to Guadalcanal himself. The intensity of the USS Atlanta’s preparation for deployment, intense training, and overall discipline of the sailors are a testament to our fighting ancestors of World War II. This book, with its embedded diary, clearly demonstrates we are standing on the shoulders of giants.
Book Review written by: Andrew K. Murray, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas