Before the heavily battle-damaged USS Atlanta was scuttled, Lieutenant Commander Lloyd Mustin returned to his room to recover his diary which chronicled the eleven months leading up to the Battle of Guadalcanal. For decades the diary was in the private hands of the Mustin family before being published by David F. Winkler. This book is more than Lloyd Mustin’s war diary. The diary serves as a framework on which Winkler has built a narrative of Lloyd Mustin’s service aboard USS Atlanta.
Before presenting the diary, Winkler undertakes an exploration of the Mustin family history and its multi-generational connection to the United States Navy as well as Lloyd Mustin’s early life. Particularly noteworthy, is the career of Henry C. Mustin, Lloyd Mustin’s father, and his contributions as a pioneer in naval aviation. By contrast, Lloyd Mustin pursued naval gunnery where he made his own contributions to anti-aircraft weapons systems while studying at MIT.
The diary itself does not begin until Chapter 3 with an entry on December 23, 1941, the day before USS Atlanta’s commissioning. It is here that the book takes shape. From this point on, each chapter is arranged by first presenting a group of diary entries followed by a narrative, provided by Winkler, that brings depth and context to the diary.
The book gains momentum as USS Atlanta is deployed into the Pacific beyond Hawaii. The diary provides an intimate look into the mind of an officer desperate to test himself in combat but often finding himself on the sidelines. Mustin’s frustration with a lack of aggression on the part of his superiors is a theme that runs throughout his diary. At the same time, Admiral Nimitz held similar frustrations and urged his commanders to take more risks in combat.
Naturally, Mustin’s observations regarding naval gunnery, especially anti-aircraft gunnery, feature prominently. Mustin frequently discusses how anti-aircraft capabilities could be utilized to their fullest extent. This often takes the form of after-action critiques.
The realities of day-to-day life aboard a light cruiser is captured by the diary. Much of the time is occupied with training, maintenance, logistics, etcetera. Amongst the more mundane aspects of life at sea are interesting details, such as the confusion and frustration produced by the adoption of British convoy zigzag plans and the British Merchant Signal Book for American naval operations.
The diary ends on October 28, 1942, with Mustin complying with an order not to maintain a diary. The remainder of the book relies on oral history to fill in the remainder of the story up to the loss of USS Atlanta in November, which would be Mustin’s introduction to intense combat.
This book is a valuable addition to the Pacific War corpus while providing insights into some of the formative experiences of Lloyd Mustin who would eventually rise to the flag rank of vice admiral. Winkler’s supporting narrative is well written, and he draws upon a wide array of sources to bring Lloyd Mustin’s world to life.
