January 21, 201115 yr An article in the Washington Post implies that he sent the message on his own initative. I remember all the way back to Walter Lord's DAY OF INFAMY (required reading for freshman history in 1967!) that Admiral Pat Bellinger (d. 1962) wrote up the message and had it sent. There was even some question over the wording - was it "NO DRILL" or "NOT DRILL"? By the way, Billings MT, is the home town of David Thatcher, the "Ruptured Duck" gunner from "30 Seconds Over Tokyo".
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