By August 11, the full impact of the vanished transports was permeating the command, so again I called a conference of my staff and command officers.... I ended the conference by posing with this fine group of officers, a morale device that worked because they thought if I went to the trouble of having the picture taken then I obviously planned to enjoy it in future years.
Recently, General Merrill B. “Bill” Twining, on Guadalcanal a lieutenant colonel and assistant D-3, recalled the circumstances of the photograph and philosophized about the men who appeared in it:
The group is lined up on the slope of the coral ridge which provided a degree of protection from naval gunfire coming from the north and was therefore selected as division CP....
There was no vital reason for the conclave. I think V[andegrift] just wanted to see who was in his outfit. Do you realize these people had never been together before? Some came from as far away as Iceland....
V[andegrift] mainly introduced himself, gave a brief pep talk.... I have often been asked how we could afford to congregate all this talent in the face of the enemy. We didn’t believe we (_at the moment_) faced any threat from the Japanese. The defense area was small and every responsible commander could reach his CP in 5 minutes and after all there were a lot of good people along those lines. Most of the fresh-caught second lieutenants were battalion commanders two years later. We believed in each other and trusted.
The General and His Officers on Guadalcanal, According to the Chart
1. Col George R. Rowan 2. Col Pedro A. del Valle 3. Col William C. James 4. MajGen Alexander A. Vandegrift 5. LtCol Gerald C. Thomas 6. Col Clifton B. Cates 7. Col Randolph McC. Pate 8. Cdr Warwick T. Brown, USN 9. Col William J. Whaling 10. Col Frank B. Goettge 11. Col LeRoy P. Hunt, Jr. 12. LtCol Frederick C. Biebush 13. LtCol Edwin A. Pollock 14. LtCol Edmund J. Buckley 15. LtCol Walter W. Barr 16. LtCol Raymond P. Coffman 17. LtCol Francis R. Geraci 18. LtCol William E. Maxwell 19. LtCol Edward G. Hagen 20. LtCol William N. McKelvy, Jr. 21. LtCol Julian N. Frisbie 22. Maj Milton V. O’Connell 23. Maj William Chalfant III 24. Maj Horace W. Fuller 25. Maj Forest C. Thompson 26. Maj Robert G. Ballance 27. Maj Henry C. Buse, Jr. 28. Maj James W. Frazer 29. Maj Henry H. Crockett 30. LtCol Lenard B. Cresswell 31. Maj Robert O. Brown 32. LtCol John A. Bemis 33. Col Kenneth W. Benner 34. Maj Robert B. Luckey 35. LtCol Samuel B. Taxis 36. LtCol Eugene H. Price 37. LtCol Merrill B. Twining 38. LtCol Walker A. Reaves 39. LtCol John D. Macklin 40. LtCol Hawley C. Waterman 41. Maj James C. Murray, Jr. ]