Quote Originally Posted by Rob Thornton View Post

Rare is the flag who can employ air, land and sea-power in a complimentary and synchronous manner to achieve an end.
I'm going to go out on a limb here--when I read this sentence one name came to mind-Douglas MacArthur.

When you look at his breadth of his Pacific Campaign, I see a general who fills the above description to a T. After the slugfest at Buna, MacArthur embarked on a campaign that minimized direct engagements all the way up the New Guinea coast and on to the Phillipines, when taken in the whole his entire 3 year campaign had fewer casualties than the Battle of the Buldge.

However, many (perhaps rightly) will not be able to see past MacArthur's extreme egotism. He was, according to one biographer, a "thundering paradox" of a man. He often refered to the Air Force and Navy under his command as "his Air Force, and his Navy" all the while skillfully employing each. The one real blight on his military career was his despondance at the inital Japanese invasion of the Phillipines, once he got engaged, we was able to skillfully maneuver his army intact to Bataan, but his delay to order this withdrawl ensured that not enough supplies would be transported as well, therefore dooming his command.