UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY
SIXTIETH GRADUATION ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLASS OF 1940
CHAPTER 1
THE LONG VOYAGE
This is a transcript of "The Long Voyage of the Class of Forty-U. S. Naval Academy" taken from the book The Class of Forty After Fifty Years © W. M. Carpenter 1990. Original text by C. H. Hall and W. D. Lanier.
THE END OF THE WAY
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"When
the storm has ceased to blow,
When the fiery fight is heard no more."
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The way to victory, from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, had indeed been long, but perhaps not as long as we had feared, back on that discouraging day in December of 1941. The going had been hard, perhaps harder than we had expected, as pre-war certainties were disproved. So hard that, in the moment of victory, feelings of elation were apt to give way to an overwhelming sense of relief. We were glad to win. We were even happier to be done with it.
It was a memorable moment, as the Japanese delegation filed aboard MISSOURI to formally surrender. Many of us, on the morning of December 7, 1941, had seen at close hand the war's beginning. Just one of us, on the morning of September 2, 1945, had an equally close view of the war's end. Bob Kaufman, standing on the quarterdeck of MISSOURI as aide to ComSubPac, represented us all.
He represented the survivors, not only of the major campaigns, battles and engagements mentioned in this fragmental history, but of all the many other hazardous actions and arduous duties over the months and the years that have gone unmentioned.
He represented the survivors who made it to the end of the way, and he represented, most poignantly, those who did not make it to the moment of final victory, but who gave more than any of us to make victory possible.
As our representative, he had some reason to be proud. It was said earlier that, as an incoming class, we shared one resolve--we proposed to serve. The record is clear. When the time came, serve we did, with distinction, with devotion and with honor. No class served more widely or more actively. None paid a higher price.