Flag Plot

Flag Plot. . Battleships and other large ships were all equipped to host an admiral and his staff. The admiral had his own dining, office, and sleeping quarters. His staff had their own office and sleeping spaces. , , Flag Plot was his tactical and operational center. The admiral and his staff had their own radio circuits, radar repeaters, and plotting board to coordinate movements of ships and aircraft. , , North Carolina was not often a flagship, so the Combat Intelligence Officer used it as his office and briefing room. , , Why is it called flag? , Flag or flag officer is the general term for an admiral. Admirals are referred to as flag officers because they can fly their personal flag from the ship's mast when onboard. Whenever an admiral is onboard a ship, that ship is referred to as his flagship. , , Crew Memories , The place assigned to me for my work was Flag Plot. It was intended to be used by an embarked admiral, but since the “North Carolina” did not ordinarily carry one, the space was available and admirably suited to serve as my intelligence plot. For security reasons, the room was kept locked at all times, with keys in the possession of only four persons: the Captain, Executive Officer; Gunnery Officer, and myself. Because I was so often awakened at night to plot new information, I managed to obtain a canvas cot, with the Exec's permission, so I could sleep in that space at times when a major operation was going on. The setup was especially advantageous for me because Flag Plot was one of the few places on the Ship that were air-conditioned. , , Each day the Ship received by encrypted radio message a secret intelligence summary from Pacific Fleet Headquarters at Pearl Harbor. These gave the best known or estimated positions of all major units of the Imperial Japanese Navy, including submarines. Also received regularly were updates of the positions of our own naval forces in the combat area. It was my duty to maintain on a large map of the western Pacific an up-to-the-minute plot of the locations of all those ships, both enemy and friendly. The work was demanding of my time that I was assigned no watches. Most unusual and quite welcomed. , , Because I was the person responsible for the secret intelligence plot and perhaps best informed of what was going on in the combat area, I was given custody of all operation plans and orders received by the “North Carolina” preceding each operation. These plans, explaining what we were to accomplish during an impending period at sea, usually did not arrive on board until the very day of our sortie from port. This was for security reasons, as the plans and orders were invariably classified Top Secret. , , My role was to take custody of the plans in my secret hideaway and digest them as rapidly as possible before giving an oral presentation to key officers of the Ship, spelling out where we were headed and what we were about to do. My briefing, which usually lasted at least a couple of hours, was conducted in the unoccupied Admiral Quarters. , , Lt (jog) Ben Blee, , Combat Intelligence Officer