“I'll take it! If anything gets in my way, we'll shoot first and argue afterwards.”
On taking responsibility for the war, as quoted in Joseph Bryan, Admiral Halsey's story (1947), p. 76.
Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr., KBE , known as Bill Halsey or "Bull" Halsey, was an American admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. He is one of four individuals to have attained the rank of fleet admiral of the United States Navy, the others being Ernest King, William Leahy, and Chester W. Nimitz.
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Halsey graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1904. He served in the Great White Fleet and, during World War I, commanded the destroyer USS Shaw. He took command of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga in 1935 after completing a course in naval aviation, and was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in 1938. At the start of the War in the Pacific , Halsey commanded the task force centered on the carrier USS Enterprise in a series of raids against Japanese-held targets.
Halsey was made commander, South Pacific Area, and led the Allied forces over the course of the Battle for Guadalcanal and the fighting up the Solomon chain . In 1943 he was made commander of the Third Fleet, the post he held through the rest of the war. He took part in the Battle for Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of the Second World War and, by some criteria, the largest naval battle in history. He was promoted to fleet admiral in December 1945 and retired from active service in March 1947.
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“I'll take it! If anything gets in my way, we'll shoot first and argue afterwards.”
On taking responsibility for the war, as quoted in Joseph Bryan, Admiral Halsey's story (1947), p. 76.
Battle Stations! Your Navy in Action (1946), "The Surrender of Japan", p. 360
“Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell.”
Remark in December 1941, after the attack of Pearl Harbor, as quoted in Roger Parkinson, Attack on Pearl Harbour (1973), p. 117; James Bradley, Flyboys (2004), p. 138.
Quoted in the Congressional Record, 11 December 1971 http://books.google.com/books?id=ltuwtwQcKHwC&q=%22There+are+no+great+men+there+are%22+%22only+great+challenges+which+ordinary+men+like+you+and+me+are++forced+by+circumstances+to+meet%22&pg=PA46480#v=onepage.
“Kill Japs, kill Japs, kill more Japs!”
Reported in James Bradley, Flyboys (2004), p. 138; Thomas Evans, Sea of Thunder (2006), p. 1; Paul Fussell, Wartime (1990), p. 119.
Speech at the Naval Academy, as quoted in James C. Bradford, Quarterdeck and Bridge: Two Centuries of American Naval Leaders (1997), p. 350.
Source: Admiral Halsey's Story (1947), p. 242