Meanwhile, it was a gloomy outfit that received Admiral Pratt on the _Big Sara_ for the cruise home. The admiral had just been selected for the highest naval command, Chief of Naval Operations, in Washington. En route north he brought up the problem of the “home yard” for the _Lexington_. Norfolk was the _Lexington’s_ home yard. Admiral Pratt, proposed to return her to the Atlantic in order to balance the work load—in other words keep the yard workmen employed. Wagner and I took issue with him and I must have pressed too hard on the need for keeping the squadrons together for training, for Admiral Pratt turned on me in some annoyance and barked, “You always see the ultimate objective and want to take it on the first assault. You’ve got to learn to take minor objectives one at a time, and to hold them till the big one falls in your lap. Otherwise,” he added, shaking a finger in my face, “you’ll never get anywhere in this man’s Navy.” Shortly after we arrived in San Diego, and even before the admiral’s relief had reported, Bull Reeves was detached from his command. The day he shoved off, all his squadron commanders and staff accompanied him to the Santa Fe railway station. Overhead FLEET AIR paraded for him in a last formation flight. The Old Man put up a cheerful front until Harry Bogusch shook his hand. “Admiral,” said Harry, “we used to hate your guts for making us fly those tight formations, but that night off Panama we blessed you for the air discipline you had forced on us.” With that, two big tears welled up in Bull Reeves’s eyes and ran down his nose onto his gray whiskers. After Admiral Nulton had hoisted his flag on the fleet flagship _California_, I found myself once again on a battleship. Time was when I would have thrilled at the thought. Now it left me numb. To have served with two great leaders in succession and to have lived through the creative period of naval aviation ashore and afloat and then go back to battle wagons cheerfully was too much to expect. I couldn’t get into the spirit of it. When later the _California_ spent the summer at the navy yard in Bremerton, Washington, I was completely cut off from aircraft operations except by correspondence. Admiral Nulton and his battle fleet staff tried hard to absorb some of the new ideas, but it was too much to expect them to think and act intuitively, along lines that crisscrossed every preconceived idea.