Four bells and all's hell

OK shipmate. With "optimal manning" and money focused manning plans; think about your drills, underway time, damage control, training and PQS programs - are you ready for this?

SAN FRANCISCO had been hit 45 times and had 22 major fires
burning; she had some 183 dead out of 1100 on board. Besides the
Admiral and Captain Young, all but two of the Admiral's staff were
dead, and both Executive Officers. Turrets I and III could still be
fired, and five of eight 5-inch secondary guns.

Another Phibian "period piece," the 63rd anniversary of THE NAVAL BATTLE OF GUADALCANAL.

The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal took three days to fight to a
decision, 13 - 15 Nov 1942. It came about because an American
reinforcement effort coincided with a major Japanese one. The narrow
American victory here was to decide the Guadalcanal Campaign, the
first American counteroffensive of the Pacific War -- and from here
on out, they would be rolling the Japanese back towards their own
home Islands. There was a great deal at stake, fighting for this
jungle airfield that nobody really wanted.

Read the whole thing. The facts are better than any Naval fiction you will ever read. I don't know about you, but the hairs on my neck stood up and my heart rate rose reading it. For you Navy types out there: look at the timeline (local times) and ponder being there. This all took place less than a year after Pearl Harbor. These guys went to war with the Navy they had, not the Navy they wanted.