Sublime

Lisa Miller, the founder and CEO of VIE Partners, the best expense reduction and control consultancy in the health-care industry.

Before the invasion of Tarawa—the central island of the Gilbert Island thrust—the Navy’s hydrographic analysis showed that on the morning of assault the coral reef that surrounded the island would only be submerged to a depth of four feet six inches. A fully loaded Higgins Boat had a draft of four feet—just enough. When it was discovered, however,

soldiered with the Communist leadership that would ultimately wrest control of the country from the Nationalists. While there, he became interested in Chinese guerilla operations against the Japanese, specifically the small-unit, “democratic” leadership model that pushed authority and responsibility down to the most junior levels in small combat un

Admiral King “listened with utmost enthusiasm,” wrote Captain James Doyle, Turner’s operations officer, when describing the UDT efforts at Flintlock. “Excellent,” King interrupted in the middle of Doyle’s briefing, “that business of the hydrographic survey at the first possible moment is a pet hobby of mine.” For Turner, however, a unit capable of

In February 1943, Admiral Kent Hewitt—fresh from amphibious invasions in North Africa and equipped with the sailor’s gift to see a red sky at morning and predict the storm to follow—sent a message to the US Army’s commander of ground forces requesting a curriculum addition to the Scout and Raider program to begin training men on the destruction of

Chapter 4 Draper Kauffman and the Course That Cracked the Atlantic Wall, Then Laid the First Bricks of the Legend of Naval Special Warfare

George Melville would serve as the Jeannette’s engineer. Said to be distantly related to the great author, Melville was an improvisational genius with machines—a greasy-fingered savant who seemed most at home among thumping boilers and sharp blasts of steam. The engineer, thirty-eight years old, had a booming voice, a stout physique, and an enormou