Very readable and excellent book about one of the best sea admirals for the U. S. Navy in WW2. He was the navy's equivalent on the sea to Patton on the land. Early in the war, he was often at the forefront of our initial confrontations with the larger, better trained and more experienced Japanese Navy. With few resources, especially carriers, he managed to keep them of balance and at Guadalcanal stopped their march in the Pacific. Better than most of the US Surface Admirals,, who were really outclassed in most early battles of the war, Halsey, hit and ran and kept the Japanese off balance. As Wukovits deftly points out, he did not do well in his later role as a fleet commander..
Some early decisions; to have Spruance replace him at Midway, to bypass Mindanao and Peleliu(overruled by Nimitz) were correct and brilliant. Chasing the decoy carriers at Leyte Gulf, as a personal vendetta and getting caught in not one but two typhoons would have gotten any other admiral relieved of his command. But, as he covered for the ugly transgressions of Miles Brown, Nimitz, as did Eisenhower for Bradley in the Battle of the Bulge, covered for Halsey. Academy ties were incredibly strong and buried many serious and casualty generating mistakes. Halsey was flawed but he was the right admiral at the right time. ( )