Captain Michael A. Lilly, a retired surface warfare officer and Vietnam War combat veteran, had a distinguished career as Hawaii’s Attorney General and as a trial attorney. A founding director emeritus of the USS Missouri Memorial Association, he is the author of Nimitz at Ease (Stairway Press, 2019), relating how his grandparents helped Admiral Chester Nimitz cope with the stresses of command and win the Pacific war.
 

Articles by Michael A. Lilly

1945 Nimitz Guam Lanai navy photo

Nimitz at Guam: How He Relaxed from War

By Captain Michael A. Lilly, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2023
The move to Guam would bring Nimitz closer to the war, but it “was also farther from Washington” and would perhaps “discourage at least some of the VIP visitors..."
Nimitz

How Nimitz Coped

By Captain Michael A. Lilly, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 2022
How does one maintain one’s steady resolve while overseeing the largest naval conflict ever fought? For Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the answer was friends and family.

Mobilization as a Deterrent

By Captain Michael L. Lilly, USNR, and Lieutenant Commander Shackley F. Raffetto, USNR
October 1990
No event—not even the threat of thermonuclear war—has deterred the inevitability of armed conflict in 4,000 years, although the post-World War II era has been unparalleled in recorded history for ...