Joe Rochefort's War

For a full understanding of the man, Carlson examines Rochefort s love-hate relationship with cryptanalysis, his adventure-filled years in the 1930s as the right-hand man to the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet, and his return to codebreaking in mid-1941 as the officer in charge of Station Hypo. He traces Rochefort s career from his enlistment in 1918 to his posting in Washington as head of the Navy s codebreaking desk at age twenty-five, and beyond. In many ways a reinterpretation of Rochefort, the book makes clear the key role his codebreaking played in the outcome of Midway and the legacy he left of reporting actionable intelligence directly to the fleet. An epilogue describes efforts waged by Rochefort s colleagues to obtain the medal denied him in 1942 a drive that finally paid off in 1986 when the medal was awarded posthumously."