Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Arthur W. Radford

Arthur W. Radford

Nominator(s): —Ed!^(talk)

I am nominating this article for A-Class review. —Ed!^(talk) 16:53, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

I like this one. Especially the pic in the infobox. Okay, comments:

• Commander Air Force, Pacific Fleet should be Commander, Naval Air Forces, Pacific Fleet and linked to Commander, Naval Air Forces
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Link Carrier Division Eleven to Carrier Strike Group Eleven (most of your red links are actually blue)
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Similarly, Carrier Division Six is Carrier Strike Group Six
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• he was ordered onto the light aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVL-22) What does this mean?
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• How about adding the WWII campaigns to the infobox?
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air, visited Radford and was so impressed with him that he ordered rear admiral John H. Towers to transfer Radford to a newly formed training division. But you haven't said what Towers' job was. (And it gets more confusing below when you mention him again, because he is no longer in the same job.)
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• However, in an attack on the night of 26 November, Edward O'Hare, the group commander of the Enterprise air group, was shot down and killed. I'm not sure what the significance of this is. Suggest dropping the sentence.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• in March 1944 he was ordered to Washington, D.C. and appointed as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations. He assumed this new duty on 1 April under Vice Admiral John S. McCain, Sr. No, that is not correct.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• After six months in this duty, new Chief of Naval Operations Aubrey W. Fitch returned Radford to the Pacific theater. No,no, no. The CNO throughout was Admiral Ernest J. King. Look these people up on the Wikipedia. (more to come) Hawkeye7 (talk) 08:08, 1 January 2013 (UTC)
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• he was appointed as commander of the First Carrier Task Force in Carrier Division SixNot quite right.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Radford flew to Ulithi where he reported to McCain You should say what McCain's command was (TF 58)
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Returning to the Third Fleet and being re-designated Task Group 38.4 No, the Fifth Fleet became the Third again, so the TF and TG numbers changed.
  • Yes, this was July 1945. 5th Fleet became 3rd Fleet for the last time in April 1945. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Radford was promoted to vice admiral in late 1945 Can we do better than that? Vague phrases make it hard for the poor schnooks trying to paraphrase us.
  • The reference only gives the year, and the other sources confirm it was between V-E Day and 1 Jan 1946. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Radford also questioned the Air Force idea that U.S. air power should focus on nuclear weapons as its primary deterrent to war Can you double-check this? Because my recollection is that Radford was a strong supporter of naval nuclear weapons; but I am on holiday and my books are not here, so I am doing all this from memory...
  • Clarified. He was an opponent specifically of USAF over-relying on nuclear-delivery airpower, not of nuclear weapons in general. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• You should note what UNC stands for
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Still, the trip made enough of a good impression on Eisenhower that he sought to nominate Radford to be his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff I think you mean Radford rather than the trip. The point is that in acquiescing to Truman's decision to remove MacArthur, the Joint Chiefs, and Bradley in particular, had become politicized, and Eisenhower removed them all. So Radford, whose career had been in a tailspin after the revolt, suddenly found himself recalled from exile.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Following the end of his second term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Radford opted to retire from the Navy in 1957. Following this, Do we have to repeat "following"?
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
• Radford died at 77 on 17 August 1973I think you mean at age 77?
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 01:33, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Ahhhh, that should do it. Hawkeye7 (talk) 08:56, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

• Support Hawkeye7 (talk) 02:00, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Support Comments at this stage:

Early life

• "After several months of tutoring at an Annapolis, Maryland, he..." - at an? I think the location should mentioned at first mention of the academy. Also was he a tutor or was he receiving tuition?
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• "among other students" doesn't read well to me - just a suggestion, perhaps "to his fellow students".
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• Should 59 be 59th?
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Military career

• Is the use of tour of duty appropriate for the navy? Should it be posting or something similar? I suggest combining the first two sentences; maybe "Radford's first posting was aboard the battleship USS South Carolina,[2] on which he saw his first duty during World War I."
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• was his second tour on South Carolina?
  • Clarified. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Aviation Training Division

• "Radford convinced Congressman Carl Vinson, chair of the House Naval Affairs Committee." Convinced him to do what?
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• repeated use of established, professionals and variants in last sentences of this section.

Sea duty

• • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• "This operation successful, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz sent Task Force 15, with Lexington, under Rear Admiral Charles A. Pownall, and Radford and Pownall steamed for Tarawa Atoll to strike it." Repeated use of Pownall, suggest rephrasing. Also, was Radford still commanding Princeton?
  • Clarified. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Major combat operations

• Repeated use of operation in first few sentences.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• In first para, Radford commands Task Group 50.2; in second he commands Carrier Division Eleven?
  • Clarified. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• "make learn" - might need to explain this term?
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet

• "In these years," should that be "In this position" or "While in this position"?

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

• • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• The first sentence repeats the last part of the last sentence of the previous para
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
• In the para starting "In 1956, Radford..." there is repeated use of "reduce" and "reductions"
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

I did a quick passover of the text and fixed the odd typo. Otherwise, this article looks good. Zawed (talk) 09:43, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for your review! —Ed!^(talk) 13:55, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

All good Ed!, adding my support now. Cheers. Zawed (talk) 22:32, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Comments

• What evidence is there to link the modern Carrier Strike Groups with the WWII-era Carrier Divisions of the same number? The Navy doesn't seem to make the connection anywhere that I looked. The page for CSG 7 only traced its ancestry back to 1956, not Carrier Division 7 and CSG 11 only seems to go back to the late '60s.
  • Jumping in here: the Carrier Divisions were renamed Carrier Strike Groups in 1973. [1] Hawkeye7 (talk) 09:09, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• Totally irrelevant to this review, but I found it very odd to note that I've been to every place Radford lived in the Early Life para.
  • Well that's unusual. What are the odds?
• Fighter squadrons aboard 2 battleships and a seaplane tender? Is somebody calling scouting units fighter squadrons? Tucker seems to be confused here.
  • Agreed. Changing this to "aircraft squadron units" so as to avoid SYNTH.
• Now VF-1B was a fighter squadron and should be called that.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• established training literature should be "wrote" training literature.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• Change "american football" to just football. This is an American-centric article afterall.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• How could Radford be assigned as a carrier division commander before he got command of Division 11? I suspect that Tucker meant that he was tapped for division command because he spent several months learning division command before getting his own division.
  • Agreed. Changed the wording here too. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• I don't actually think that Galvanic was the first time that the Americans faced Japanese land-based air power while the ground pounders fought it out. That dubious honor goes to Guadalcanal, IMO.
  • Ugh, that's also right. Clearly this book needed some more proofing. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• This confuses me since I don't know the hierarchy here First Carrier Task Force, Carrier Division Six Did he command both or was one or the other superior to the other?
  • The task force was a sub-unit of the carrier division. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• Who did Radford replace in TG 38.1?
  • Added the name. (a redlink) —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• What is meant by this? Radford's force continued its use of night raids, which by this point were effective in repelling Japanese attacks on U.S. Navy ships Does this mean preemptively attacking Japanese aircraft before they took off, or is this some sort of night CAP?
  • Both. The source indicates he supported night fighters and used them both to defend his ships at night and to attack Japanese aircraft they spotted. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• The DCNO (Air) has no formal relationship to the Secretary of the Navy. Is there a link for DCNO (Air)?
  • No unfortunately, and I don't know enough about the position to create one. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• What are fast-attack carrier aircraft? As opposed to slow-attack carrier aircraft. If you mean jets, then say so, although this is way early for any significant deployments of Navy jet-powered attack aircraft, AFAIK.
  • Jumping in again. Fast attack carriers were the large ones, as opposed to the smaller slower anti-submarine warfare (ASW) (or escort) carriers. Hawkeye7 (talk) 09:15, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• When was Radford appointed High Commissioner?
  • No source gives a specific date. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• Shouldn't most of the last para in the Postwar section be moved to the Commander Pacific Feet or Revolt of the Admirals section?
  • No, all of that occurred while Radford was VCNO and before his nomination. Only after he became CINCPACFLT did those debates intensify into the "revolt." —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• This seems a bit too fluffy: gained an in-depth understanding of the sociopolitical issues facing each nation and the region as a whole. Learned about I could accept, but this seems like something from a resume or something.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• The caption in the picture of Radford and McArthur is wrong. MacArthur is on the right.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• Fix the wording in the ribbon array: it's the "Order of the Bath", not Order of Bath.
  • Fixed. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
• This seems kind of redundant: accorded to a former four-star admiral, and a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff The primary difference is that there's a higher-ranking and more numerous crowd for ranking individuals vs. a lieutenant.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 08:47, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
  • Fixed. Thanks for your review. —Ed!^(talk) 14:21, 13 January 2013 (UTC)