and australian forces faced the japanese navy in the philippines c. the four-day battle is considered one of the largest naval conflicts of world war ii. next, author james one fisher details the role of one of the ships commander's, his destroyer was sunk during the battle, and he was posthumously awarded the medal of honor by congress. james hornfischer is the author world war iis on naval history. recorded at the u.s. naval academy, this is about an hour. >> good morning and welcome. for those who do not know me, i'm the daily, ceo of the u.s. naval institute. the u.s. institute is honored to partner with the u.s. naval academy again this year on an important history topic. this years theme is leaders in action. ordinary people doing the extraordinary. i would ask you all to stand please for the pledge of

allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you. again, this year, we are deeply honored to have the william m. wood foundation house our conference sponsored. we think the conference and its trustees for enabling us to take a careful look and reflect on the meaning of historically significant deeds and actions. we also extend a special midshipman welcome for all those at the academy. if you look throughout the academy yard and look at the history reflected in the plaques and monuments, you cannot help but be impressed with the fact that this place and those who have gone before us have been

the true practitioners of important naval history. we also welcome the rotc students today from the george washington university consortium. thank you for joining us. and the students from the severn school who have joined us today. each year, the naval institute works with a department or division of the academy. this year, we are pleased to work with the leadership, education, and development division with captain wes huey and his primary action officers. they have done an outstanding job. i think you will agree we have a terrific program. we go from the battle of leyte gulf to a conversation with medal of honor recipients from world war ii, vietnam, and afghanistan, to a luncheon

keynote by former navy pilot and prisoner of war captain charlie plum. finally, to a conversation with wounded warriors from the recent conflicts with lieutenant trevor thompson. it is now my pleasure to introduce our superintendent, vice admiral ted carter graduated from the naval academy in 1981. he was designated a navy flight officer in 1982. in 1985, he attended the navy fighter weapons school "top gun." that is a year ahead of goose and maverick. he has flown 125 combat missions in support of joint operations in bosnia, kosovo, kuwait, iraq, and afghanistan. he has accumulated more than 6000 flight hours in the f-4,

f-14, and f-18, landing on 19 different aircraft carriers. this next stat grabs my attention especially. he has had over 2000 carrier landings. as far as i know, that is a record. he has served as the commanding officer of the camden aoe2 and carl vinson and recently commanded the carrier strike group during the final deployment in 2012. we are proud he is a member and author-contributor. he recently served as the president of the naval war college. let's welcome vice admiral carter. [applause]

>> good morning, everybody. it is a cool fall day. what a great chance to be here to start the 2014 naval history symposium. i'm honored to be up here with you to talk about what we are going to experience over the course of the day. pete daly just gave you a wonderful rundown of the magnificent speakers we are going to have today. for the benefit of the students as well as the naval academy midshipmen and all the wonderful folks in the audience, i feel like i would be remiss if i did not talk a little bit about why history is important and the significance of what we are doing right here at the united states naval academy. in 10 short days, the naval academy will celebrate its 169th anniversary as an institution.

as i have come to know through my experience in the fleet and being at the naval war college enjoying the naval history magazine and other great publications, those of us who are not willing participants in wanting to understand history are certainly destined to repeat the failures of the past. there are wonderful connections. there is more than just interest in history. there is much to be learned. as i came to the naval academy, i wanted to do my own research not just remember my days from 1977 when i entered here, but what brought the naval academy to annapolis to begin with. we get ready to celebrate our birthday. it goes back to the beginning formations of our navy and those who would build our frigates going into the 1800's. john quincy adams our president in 1825 was the one who first declared there was a need for scholarly interest to develop naval officers.

we had a mission and needs statement from our president back then. it was not 20 years later it would be recognized. as anything that happens in our history, something really bad had to occur to get it going. midshipmen in the early 1800's were trained mostly on ships at sea. there were some schoolhouses in philadelphia, new york city. around that time, most teenage boys who wanted to become commissioned officers of the u.s. navy did it at sea. in 1842, a ship deployed out of the brooklyn navy yard. on board was a shipman of note named philip spencer. most people would not really know who he was. but his father and grandfather were notable. his grandfather was a politician and lawyer. his dad, john spencer, was

serving as the secretary of war for president tyler. midshipman spencer was a handsome 19-year-old young man. dark hair, he had the physical ailment of a wandering eye, was known for getting into brawls. he had escaped from the island of nantucket to get on a ship to search out for piracy. because of who his father was, he continued on the path to commission as a naval officer. on this particular deployment, they left in 1842. after doing a port visit in algiers, the captain of the ship summers noted, this was captain mackenzie, that midshipman spencer was courting with the enlisted men. midshipman spencer had a way of getting his hands on alcohol and tobacco and was quite popular.

he enlisted the help of a large mate named cromwell and another seaman named smalls. they were thinking about how to take over the ship so they could go out and do piracy. the officer crew found out about this print they put him in shackles. cromwell was a big guy. they were afraid of him. they shackled both of them. cromwell and smalls. the punishment for a planned mutiny was death by hanging, which they did without trial. so you can imagine when this ship came in with the son of the secretary of war, now dead, it was quite an outrage in the country. the captain was tried. there was a court of inquiry. of course, they were exonerated. from that action, our secretary of the navy, george bancroft, appointed without any money on 10 october, 1845, the united

states naval academy. it was not until five years later we had money to put this institution on the banks of the severn from which we took this institution from an army base. just that interesting story today brings us to understanding some of the great stories you are going to hear today. they are more than just stories. they are based in fact. my first task is to introduce our first speaker. jim hornfischer, students and those who love history, know who he is. he has written three major works. two previous ones, "ship of ghosts" and "last stand of the tin can sailors," and "neptune's inferno" published not long ago. his interest has grown out of a

lifelong interest in the pacific war. he has appeared on many television shows from fox news, the history channel, fox news war stories with oliver north, and c-span's book tv. he's a frequent speaker on war in the pacific and has done many events for the united states navy and across the united states. he is a native of massachusetts, a graduate of colgate. he got his higher education degree at the university of texas school of law. he is a member of the naval order of the united states, the navy league, and was appointed by texas governor rick perry as an admiral in the texas navy. so i am hoping he will tell us about what those duties and responsibility of being an admiral in the texas navy. he is a former new york book editor. he is located in austin where he lives with his wife and three children. his son david is with us today. please give a warm annapolis

welcome to the author of "neptune's inferno," james hornfischer. [applause] >> i did not realize we will be talking about the threat of mexican coastal raiders. and my capacity as an admiral in the texas navy. [indiscernible] [laughter] that is about all it is. it is an honor to be here to tell a story that never gets old in the telling. to tell it in your company is a privilege and opportunity and honor. thank you for that. thank you admiral carter, admiral bailey, the institute, the academy, and conferees.

on the stage, there will be a panel of men who served this country with true distinction. as one who has never worn the uniform, as i stand here i feel like the bat boy who was asked to bat leadoff for the 1927 yankees. these were historic figures, combat veterans whose stories and lessons will resonate with you in ways i cannot guess. i think each of you will respond to something different in their experiences. i really don't know of a way for anybody to learn how to do the kinds of things these men did. as of this morning, i did check. the navy has yet to stand up hero pack. there is no way to know in advance what any of us might be capable of doing in a situation such as these men faced. all we can do is hear their stories, reckon with them in private moments perhaps, and

appreciate the willpower and fortitude they used to find a way through an impossible situation, to finish their mission, to save lives perhaps, and do service to their country. we will start the day with the story from world war ii of a humble destroyer captain in the philippines in 1944 who charged oblivion had on. captain ernest evans played an inspiring role in what is the greatest surface action in naval history. 23 japanese warships, including 12 battleships and cruisers, squared off against the utility unit of escort carriers, destroyer escorts him and destroyers.

they were destroying the beachhead in the philippines. all that stood against this powerful force was the unit known to history now as taffy 3. the greatest japanese ship weight as much as all 13 american ships combined. she was a monster. we are here to talk about admiral evans. on the day battle, he is 36. he hails from muskogee oklahoma. his heritage is cherokee and creek indian. enlisted in 1926, spent a year in the navy, and then took a commission and arrived in annapolis in 1927, earning his commission in june of 1931.

10 years in the fleet saw a familiar rotation of junior officer billets and destroyers, cruisers, battleships, transports, the range of surface ships. the day of the pearl harbor attack sees him on board the uss aldrin. she served with the doomed asiatic fleet in the dutch east indies. he would command that ship for more than a year before reporting to seattle-tacoma to take command of the new uss johnston. as twilight breaks off samar on the morning of october 25, he takes his crew through their schedule. a plane flown by bill brooks reports a large formation of enemy ships. the first thought is it is halsey. their closing at 20 knots, the

range is 20 miles. the men are surprised to see the horizon flashing silently with the report of heavy gunfire. japanese ships opened fire at long range. it is in a cruising disposition, a circle, a cluster of carriers with a ring of escorts surrounding them. he orders the ships to turn east immediately into the wind. he orders them to make smoke, launch planes. he soberly calculates he might have 15 minutes before he will be enjoying a nice swim in the philippine sea. the ships can make 15 knots. his pursuers can make 27 to 30. commander evans and his fleet are on the trailing part of the circular disposition fleeing east, the japanese bearing down from 315 true.

at this point, ernest evans is a product of many things. he is a product of life on the indian territory that nurtured his desire to escape to a wider world. he is a product of the naval academy where he learned the pride of sea service. he is a product of 18 years in the fleet. perhaps the most important thing he has been influenced by is his recent experience. he was on board the uss aldrin. he never forgot how the stack engines were not powerful enough to hold that ship and her company at the head of the formation as they took it the battle against japanese cruisers. she was too slow to make an effective torpedo run. they tried. they fired. they ran low on fuel and were

forced to withdraw in the face of an overwhelming enemy. he remembered the sting of having to retreat as loser. that experience stayed with him. he carried this experience stateside. when uss johnston was commissioned at seapack in october of 1943, he invoked that memory. he told his crew this would be a fighting ship and he would not back down from the enemy. he invited anyone who wanted no part of this to leave. i don't know if this is boilerplate on commissioning day. i suspect it is set from time to time. the distinction on this day was evans meant it. confronted with this overwhelming force on october 25, captain evans demonstrates the meaning of a promise. he comes out of his cabin and coolly issues a series of commands.

there is no hesitation in his voice. prepare to attack a major portion of the japanese fleet. all engines ahead flank. make smoke. standby for torpedo attacks and left full rudder. left full rudder puts them directly on course with the japanese. the uss cole has issued no commands. evans is acting entirely on his own. in the reunions, i heard of range of opinions about this life or death decision. some of the guys were not happy to be carried toward the enemy like this. that is the thing about the navy. it is not like an infantry platoon. you don't have any choice but where the captain chooses to steer. the carriers get about 25 minutes to get their planes aloft before they have to turn out of the wind in favor of an escape course to the south. the pilots airborne are armed

for troop support not for attacking ships. they have tried bombs, 50 caliber ammunition, and no heavy ordinance. no armor pierces. with no time to form up, they rendezvous as best they can and set off after the fleet. within minutes, they are on top of their targets. evans is charging the japanese alone at 30 knots. he will have to cross several miles of shell toward ocean under fire from cruisers, battleships, the works, before he can do anything with his own five-inch battery. the range is about 18,000 yards. it is the torpedoes that will tell. his artillery officer says, please let's not go down without firing our torpedoes.

to do that, he will have to get within 10,000 yards, so we have a race against time and distance. evans has the ship zigzagging, counting on the japanese to correct their aim to his previous position. he is hoping they will continue this protectable doctrine of applying spots and new ranges. the johnston comes within range finally of the japanese cruiser, 18,000 yards. lieutenant hagan closes the firing key and opens fire. they tear up the 200-yard stretch of sea projected across the path of the cruiser's advance. when hagan sees flashes indicating hits, he tightens that to 100 yards. they land 40 hits on the japanese cruiser. the range closes.

the torpedoes at last can be fired. tin fish leap into the water beginning their countdown. he will attempt to rendezvous with the carriers pounding south fleeing for their lives. it is about 7:30 in the morning when the johnston takes her first hit. the impact seems to shove the destroyer sideways, lieutenant hagan will report. across the 376 foot links, men are knocked off their feet. this salvo comes from a battleship, probably the congo. it was like a puppy being smacked by a truck, he would write. the salvo penetrates into the after engine room exploding against the reduction gears.

they take one of the shells. the shells release super pressured steam from boiler pipes with less mercy. not a man in the active fire room survives this. with this hit, one engine goes out and the johnston's speed is cut in half to about 18 knots. there is the sound of a load of sheet metal dropping to the floor. he takes a small caliber, grabs a light cruiser, six in shells that hit below the platform twisting it upward around the stack and striking the port bridge wing. the blast of the bridge all but undresses captain evans. it blows the cap from his head in tears the shirt from his chest. aircraft rounds are sent popping. he takes shrapnel to the face and torpedo.

the medical officer comes to assess him. he says don't bother with me now. help those hurt. evans was still in charge, seemingly unbothered by the fact that two fingers are gone. his well-kept pilot hat has been turned into a meat locker defiled by human wreckage. think it might hurt morale, he orders his officers to toss it overboard and orders everyone off the bridge. the crew of the johnston learned in an instant the shrapnel comes in many sizes. some large enough to cut limbs. some fine particulate like a hot, driving mist. they learn that shrapnel burning through steel releases noxious gases. this is what going in harm's way entailed. bob hagan is checking his guns.

he polls the crew. then come the reports. gun one, aye. gun five, aye. hagan is relieved he is not alone but wonders after gun number four. the captain calls from a different station. he has lost power and asks permission to fire on local control. hagan approves the request, and he declares his own war on the japanese. it seems these torpedoes cruising north, at least one or two find their marks. they watch the cruiser they have been targeting. they watch the japanese ship

heaved out of the water. the crippled cruiser falls out of line at half speed. the johnston has scored. along the way, admiral sprague has ordered attack. they pull out of the antiaircraft disposition, form a column, and head into the japanese. heading north, they cross paths with the johnston going south returning to rendezvous. they are stunned how badly she has been hit. gun shields are torn away. by any measure, the ship is entitled to call it a day. but evans has a different understanding of his duty. as the other crews watch dumbstruck, evans throws over the rudder, takes his limping ship with those in to lend gunfire support to the torpedo run.

he's having a second run at the japanese. we are about 45 minutes into the fight now. the naval high command is in a stir. thomas kinkaid is making calls on the radio to halsey asking for assistance. in time, admiral nimitz of pearl harbor will intercept some of these and ask halsey about the whereabouts of the battleships he thought were defending the san bernadino strait. halsey is to the north chasing the japanese carriers, long history and through the japanese naval air arms.

he finally orders the battleships to make course south. but it will be far too late. the little ships will be the sole owners of the fight for survival supported by the next tactical group to the south launching aircraft. they are in this alone. third fleet will play no part. by the time they reach torpedo range, the battle has devolved into a street fight. the hobbled johnston is tossed between a japanese heavy cruiser column and a squadron of destroyers off to the west. when captain evans sees the destroyers are closing and spraying carriers, he changes course and orders hagan to engage them. johnston's guns keep up a rapid fire at 7500 yards. hagan is pleased to see hits on the leading ship, the squadron flagship. he watches in astonishment as the ship turns away. he swivels his guns to the next ship in line and opens fire. that ship turns away.

all along the column, taking hits and firing more, destroyers turn away. the captain on the tail from texas screams down for more shells. one of his gang grumbles, "sure glad there ain't no japs from texas." hagan is dumbstruck with joy as the enemy changes course. evans is so elated that according to hagan he can scarcely speak. he struts across the bridge saying now i have seen everything. but the johnston has no way out of this now. she is surrounded by enemy ships and has their full attention. she suffers vicious bombardment.

one of her forward mounts take a direct hit. everybody is either killed or critically wounded. fires break out below filling the upper room with smoke and making the bridge all but untenable. smoke flows up and engulfs bob hagan and the gun director. our eyes were streaming and we were coughing and choking as we carried out our duties, he said. we were in the position where all the guts and gallantry in the world could not save us. we knew we could not survive. but we figured help must be on the way. and every minute's delay might count. this was the emblem of sacrifice. our lives don't matter, but they will not catch the carriers whose protection is our duty. evans has decamped the stern to command from the emergency steering station at this point. he is relating course changes down the hatch to the steering

engine room. some survivors credit the fact they lived to this erratic course as the johnston still trying to chase splashes on a manually operated rudder. the ship is rather clumsy. they will credit their survival to the fact the japanese are looking at this target is saying, what on earth is it doing? with the japanese are close, about 6000 yards away. two other ships are giving the last full measure. the hoyle goes down about 8:40. more than 80% of her 325-man crew are killed in action. a salvo of battleship shells has gutted the roberts opening up the side plating to the point a semi trailer could fit through. the japanese get the range on sprague's carriers as well. one takes a hit, loses an engine, falls out of formation, and is sunk.

in the midst of this, there comes a rare moment in naval warfare. normally sea battles are fought at great ranges, the actors in steel machines. the operators rarely glimpsed one another. now we have lieutenant commander robert copeland heartbroken to see what has become of evans ship. he says the johnston went by limping along at slow speed and i saw her captain. he was a big man with coal black hair. his name was evans. i met him at conferences. he was standing on the fantail calling down through an open hatch to the steering room. i can see him now.

he was stripped to the waist and covered with blood. his left hand was wrapped in a handkerchief. as he went by, he was not over 100 feet from us as he passed us on the starboard side. he turned a little and waved his hand at me. captain copeland would never see evans again. for almost two hours, the johnston has waged a futile effort to keep the ships from overtaking sprague's carriers. it seems nothing remains to be done. two japanese heavy cruisers are on the verge of pinching off the southward flight. but something extraordinary is about to happen. admiral kurita, in the midst of fatigue, he has been in combat for nearly 72 hours straight. as time goes on, the air attacks intensified. she starts getting hit with armor piercing bombs and torpedoes. they lay themselves into these two cruisers.

as 9:00 approaches, two cruisers are dead in the water and sinking, japanese cruisers victims of air attack and surface attack. the destroyers are getting hit relentlessly while the wildcat pilots circle around and make dummy runs. the dummy runs force the japanese captain to change course compromising speed in pursuit through course changes. the japanese commanders are constantly exaggerating the size of the american ships. many are down, johnston dead in the water. admiral kurita issues an order to his far-flung squadron to rendezvous north, speed 20.

the japanese are going home. a signalman seeing the silhouettes becoming smaller exclaims, "they are getting away!" ernest evans' ship, the first into the fight, will be the last to die. as she slows, there comes an impact so severe the crew thinks it has hit a marine obstruction. there is a terrible sensation of being lifted and shaken violently. this has knocked the electrical board guide. it coasts to its final resting place. captain evans passes the order to abandon ship. she was a vehicle suitable only for the dead on the main deck. on the side like a pile of people, half gone. some sailors were still carrying the wounded out from below deck laying them out in the open in

the hope they might get medical assistance or at least fresh air, some relief from the exhaustion of the foregoing two hours. captain evans walks forward toward the wardroom where lieutenant brown is attending to wounded. evans tries to persuade him to go over the side, but brown will not hear of it. there are still wounded on the ship whose lives hang in the balance. the doctor feels he can do that work better on the decks. he will use what time he has productively. bob hagan was slow to get word to abandon ship. he takes off his shoes, goes over the rail, and swims. in the water, he looks back and sees lieutenant brown carrying somebody from the outside deck back into the wardroom.

there is an explosion with a japanese shell hitting right where brown has just gone inside. hagan breaks down and sobs. the johnston's final sacrifice is to serve as the static target for japanese gunners who longed to sink anything with an american flag on it. five other little jeeps had lumbered south and probably still afloat. one took 15 hits from main battery rounds and carried on at full speed. 15 hits. most punched straight through. but the johnston's defiance is at an end. she was gallant but would not get away. captain evans and his shipmate assured she would not. what fate befell the legendary

captain himself is a subject of disagreement and conjecture among the survivors. a sailor on board the ship was among the last to see him. the motor machinist mate returned forward to fight fires. as he walks to the bow, there is a blinding flash. he is knocked unconscious. regains his senses, finds himself covered in blood. realizing the abandoned ship order has been given, he heads back to the fantail again to jump in the water easier. he wrote i went aft as captain evans went forward. we passed staring at each other. some claimed to see the skipper climb over the rail into a boat he ordered released. others were not sure he made it into the boat.

if he did, the likelihood is that he did not go far. the damage was considerable from the gunfire. it has been written that much of life is preparation. so much routine and retrospect are the purest essence to extract like to a precious few hours. the window opened by circumstance under the genius and bravery of captain evans or 2.5 hours on this morning was once again closed. they called him the chief at annapolis. the chief, the cherokee warrior, was lost by the world when taken to a private oblivion that to this day burnishes his mystique and deepens the legend of the ship and his magnificent crew. the battle is over. the japanese are withdrawing. the kamikazes will soon arrive and take out another carrier. the survivors contend with sharks, exposure, and dehydration sickness. five ships are down.

accountability for the fiasco that brought this about will never quite be delivered at the flag level. it was the greatest upset victory in the history of our navy and also one of its most embarrassing moments. even though no action was taken against him, admiral halsey reputation was never the same after this episode. leaving the aircraft carrier to defend the beachhead against the main body of the japanese fleet. controversy would rage within the closed confines of the pentagon and at pearl harbor. admiral nimitz kept the lid on the laundry. there are so many superlatives which can attach to this battle. it was first and foremost the greatest upset victory in our own navy's history.

it was the first time an aircraft carrier was sung by enemy gunfire and the only time she fired in anger at a u.s. ship. the first use of suicide planes, the first and last time destroyers engaged heavy cruisers and battleships 30 times their size in broad daylight in close range and got the better of them. it was the last surface action ever fought, actually. the real story remains the people. the prevailing humility of its participants always struck me. the way they describe it, what they did on that day was no different than any other destroyer crew in the fleet would have done. they were very serious about this point. they are absolutely ordinary and unremarkable. they said they did what any sailor would have done.

you ask them about any task on the ships, and they will tell you this. i realized talking to them that there are two types of greatness. there is revealed greatness and then there is the unrevealed kind. we could call it potential greatness. this view of heroism as ordinary and common opens to us all the possibility these attributes wait within all of us waiting to be vetoed by circumstance. accordingly, i think this story is a feast for all of us, even those who have never served in uniform. all of us have to figure out what we will do with this thing. ernest evans handed us the burden to wonder what we will do with his example, for history is a living thing. history is what you did yesterday. you become a historic figure the moment your deeds can be talked about in the past tense. history is how people tell that story tomorrow, just as we are

telling ernest evans' story today. no school or training command will tell you how to be ernest evans until darpa's scientists break the code. we will be left to ponder alone what our truest capabilities might be. ernest evans stands as an inspiration to ponder. i doubt he would have wanted us to see him as a towering figure his example should intimidate us into uncertainty or self-doubt. i think he would be entertained by those things. along the way to become the navy's greatest fighting captain the side of stephen decatur, made his story never be forgotten. take his example, and please try to make it the history of you. thank you very much. [applause]

>> we might have time. >> happy to do it. >> jim is happy to take a question or two. we are a little tight on time. we have microphones up that the mezzanine level. there are three microphones. if you have a question, please bring it. do we have a question up there? got it. >> thank you for your wonderful lecture on commander evans. he is a man not often talked about in history books, so it is

a wonderful opportunity to hear from you. i understand he has a son that was a colonel in the marine corps, vietnam veteran. are you in touch with him? do you know what he is doing now? >> yes. i have been to a lot of reunions of the various ships. i understand he came to a few of them. our paths had never crossed. he is a retired marine commander. he is not a public figure. i think his father was the same way. he knew his business, his men, his ships. i have not had the opportunity to speak with him. it would have been a privilege. in san diego later this month, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the battle, there will be a last hurrah so to speak. all the groups will be meeting. they say for the last time. they always say this. every year reunion has been the

last one for about the last 10 years. they are getting together. i hope for the opportunity to meet more of these guys. as i think back on the list of those i interviewed, not one in 10 is still around. i think these groups are bound to pass along leadership of their groups and activities to the next generation. many of them do it well. i hope for the opportunity to continue to meet the heirs of this incredible legacy. yes, sir. >> i can repeat the question. >> [indiscernible] >> what motivated you to write "the last stand of the tin can sailors"? >> what motivated me to write this book? i have been a lifelong student of the pacific war. this chapter, since i was 10 years old, the names of the ships have been burned into my brain as the emblems of american

gallantry and should stand as an example to our enemies as well of how americans fight. these names, ernest evans, samuel johnston, have been inspirations my whole life. it was a matter of reconnecting with the power of a childhood interest and exploring it in greater depth, discovering the book had not been done and thinking, "who can i get to do this?" i am in publishing. i thought maybe i would give it a shot. it was an amateur's inspiration driven by childhood interest. coinciding with the book's release, there were at least three other major writers who got in touch with me to ask me about my progress because they had been in discussions with their publishers about writing the same book.

i think i was fortuitous in that sense. this episode was controversial. evans predicted the battle of samar would not get it stay in the public eye for 50 years or more after he was gone. the book was published in 2004, almost 50 years after he passed, to this convergence of interest from multiple directions. i was part of that. i was fortuitous to have the first book come out. maybe before a lot of books that might have been better. >> we have all heard parts of or most of that story before. but i don't think anyone in the audience can say they have ever heard it told better. so we thank you. we are honored you're here today. we want to present you with our latest naval academy book. we are honored to have you here. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you.

wonderful. >> we are going to take a small break until 10:00. we'll ask you to get back in at 10:00 for the next panel with the medal of honor recipients. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> sunday afternoon, former white house press secretaries from the ford, reagan, george h w bush, clinton, and obama administrations discuss how the position has changed over time and the challenges they faced while trying to work for the white house and serve the press.