First Naval Institute Press paperback edition published in 2013.
Contents:
Trolley to San Pedro -- Mustang -- Odyssey of a Codebreaker -- Fleet Gadfly, Tokyo Whiz -- The Admiral's Confidant -- Assignment Pearl Harbor -- A Most Unusual Place -- Rochefort's World -- Shadowing Yamamoto -- Encounter with Kimmel -- Ill wind -- Comedy of Errors -- Air Raid Pearl Harbor! -- The Long Wait for JN-25(b) -- Pearl Harbor Aftermath -- Strike Up the Band -- Koryaku Butai -- Not a Very Glorious Incident -- The Dungeon Comes Alive -- A Silk Purse Out of a Sow's Ear -- King Comes Calling -- Something is Brewing -- Five Days in May -- Rochefort's War -- Affirm Fox is Confirmed Here -- Nimitz Comes Around -- Our Man in Tokyo -- By Any and All Means -- Remedial Action -- Drydocked
Summary:
Elliot Carlson's biography of Capt. Joe Rochefort is the first to be written of the officer who headed the U.S. Navy's decrypt unit at Pearl Harbor and broke the Japanese Navy's code before the Battle of Midway. The book brings Rochefort to life as the irreverent, fiercely independent, and consequential officer that he was. Readers share his frustrations as he searches in vain for Yamamoto's fleet prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but share his joy when he succeeds in tracking the fleet in early 1942 and breaks the code that leads Rochefort to believe Yamamoto's invasion target is Midway. His conclusions, bitterly opposed by some top Navy brass, are credited with making the U.S. victory possible and helping change the course of the war. The author tells the story of how opponents in Washington forced Rochefort's removal from the decrypt unit at Pearl and denied him the Distinguished Service Medal recommended by Admiral Nimitz. In capturing the interplay of policy and personality and the role played by politics at the highest levels of the Navy, Carlson reveals a side of the intelligence community seldom seen by outsiders.
