Talk:William Halsey, Jr.

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	The following comments have been left for this page: William Halsey's flag ship was not the USS Missouri. It was the New Jersey. The surrender was signed on the Missouri because it was a new addition to the fleet and was named after the home state of President Truman. Tcarsonmclean 19:42, 26 January 2007 (UTC) (edit)

Removed 'returned to the combat zone' because it never mentioned him leaving it (previous sentence discussed Battle of Leyte Gulf. DJ Clayworth 16:02, 5 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Before I make changes here, am I the only person to read Samuel Elliot Morrison's A Short History. . . and noted that the nickname "Bull" is exactly that? The only people that called him "Bull" were the press, and they didn't have the courage to do it to his face. His nickname was "Bill," for goodness sake. TDKozan 08:06, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Certainly the reason quoted for the alleged nickname is wrong (It was a misquote of "Bill") and would be beter if it was revised. Nigel Ish 21:15, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

William Halsey's flag ship was not the USS Missouri. It was the New Jersey. The surrender was signed on the Missouri because it was a new addition to the fleet and was named after the home state of President Truman. Tcarsonmclean 19:47, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

1 Post War
2 Shingles
3 Leyte
4 Citations
5 "Bull"

[edit] Post War

Hi:

I may be completely out to lunch, but I seem recall reading that he and a lot of his friends spent a lot of effort and column inches after the war explaining some of his more difficult to explain decisions; and in putting a stick in Spruance's wheel. I don't know if it's true, so perhaps someone who knows more about the period could say and cite sources if needed.

[edit] Shingles

Reason replaced at Midway - We say psoriaisis here and shingles on the Ray Spruance page —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.136.9.193 (talk) 00:00, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Leyte

Reworked this section to bring it in line with both the article in WP and what actually happened. It read like a Halsey victory when it was far from.--Lepeu1999 19:36, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citations

Nice work by Ed in updating the article, but there are virtually no sources cited.--Lepeu1999 (talk) 15:45, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

I checked the edits that I made, and nothing I did eliminated cited material -- in fact, the large majority of what I did was pure copyediting, layout adjustment and so on: I basically moved material around and smoothed it out rather than deleting or adding substantive material. When I did add factual material, it was all related to films, and the data all came from IMDB, which I believe is ref'd already. I'll check -- if not, I'll add it. Otherwise, nothing I did really effected citable stuff. Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ^{(talk / cont)} 01:25, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Bull"

The question has come up of whether or not to include "Bull" in the lede as part of Halsey's name, the argument being that Halsey himself not acknowledged this name or answered to it. I don't dispute this to be the case -- as an Admiral in war time, it's unlikely that anyone would call him by a name he didn't like -- and yet "Bull" Halsey is definitely a recognized name for this historical figure. As I mentioned, there are 28,600 Google hits for "Bull Halsey" and 56,200 hits for "Bull" and "Halsey" together. The very list of nicknames of military figures that been added to the "See also" list acknowledges that "Bull" is a nickname for Halsey, albeit one he didn't use.

It's pretty irrelevant that Halsey didn't use the name or answer to it, it's a nickname which is firmly attached to him, which is why we have a redirect to this article from "Bull Halsey" that was created in 2004. I think that the name ought to be in the lede. If the objection is that it shouldn't be in the full name, I can see that. Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ^{(talk / cont)} 01:50, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Evidence from a reliable source - these listings from the New York Times archives, dispatches from the Pacific War, which consistently refer to him as "Admiral William F. (Bull) Halsey". Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ^{(talk / cont)} 02:15, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I would point out that the compromise currently in the lede - of having the reference to "Bull" be separate from the subjects full legal name, is the same as employed in the article on Arthur "Bomber" Harris. Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ^{(talk / cont)} 02:51, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

For what it's worth, Evan Thomas's book, Sea of Thunder, apparently has some background on the nickname:

'Though Halsey claimed his nickname "Bull" had been bestowed by newspapermen, in fact he had been dubbed "Bull" by fellow officers for his conquests ashore. Carnes Week’s son Carnes Jr., a Marine corporal, was invited to have drinks with Halsey at the St. Francis Hotel during a home leave in 1944. "When he partied, he really let himself go," Weeks recalled. "He always had a Marine guard outside his door, and I was asked to stand guard there that night. Inside, I could hear them down on all fours barking like a dog with this nice lady who was his friend for the evening."' — http://www.spout.com/blogs/puhnner/archive/2007/10/29/21260.aspx

—WWoods (talk) 06:53, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I thought I had added that info to this article - but maybe it was to The Gallant Hours. Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ^{(talk / cont)} 08:16, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

That's where I found the link. —WWoods (talk) 16:55, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

<--I deleted because it's not a nickname Halsey himself ever recognized or answered to (or so said Morison, IIRC). The fact 20K+ Google hits come back with it only show how widespread the bull is. We should not be perpetuating fiction, no matter how popular or well-known. (And his barking like a dog makes damn all difference to the accuracy of the nickname, absent it being a reliable source how he got it.) Trekphiler (talk) 09:54, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

The point really is it doesn't matter if Halsey used it, because other people did to refer to him, including contemporaneous dispatches from the NY Times. This is biography, not hagiography. Ed Fitzgerald (unfutz) ^{(talk / cont)} 10:00, 9 March 2008 (UTC)