rescued of the over 800 men presumed missing in the three ships, and two others who had been swept overboard from the escort carrier . Despite disobeying fleet orders, Plage was awarded the Legion of Merit by Admiral Halsey, and Tabberer'''s crew was awarded Navy Unit Commendation ribbons (the first ever awarded). Aftermath While conducting refueling operations off the Philippines, the Third Fleet remained on station rather than breaking up and seeking shelter from the storm. This led to a severe loss of men, ships, and aircraft. A Court of Inquiry was convened on board the USS Cascade at the naval base at Ulithi, in the Caroline Islands, with Admiral Nimitz, CINCPAC, in attendance at the court. Forty-three-year-old Captain Herbert K. Gates was the judge advocate for the court. The court found that though Halsey had committed an "error of judgement" in sailing the Third Fleet into the heart of the typhoon, it stopped short of unambiguously recommending sanction. In January 1945, Halsey passed command of the Third Fleet to Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. This typhoon led to the establishment of weather infrastructure of the U.S. Navy, which eventually became the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. In popular culture A typhoon plays an important role in Herman Wouk's novel The Caine Mutiny, which is thought to be based on the author's own experience surviving Typhoon Ida on the USS Southard at Okinawa. See also List of Pacific typhoon seasons Typhoon Connie (1945), which hit the same fleet in June 1945, leading to immediate formation of Fleet Warning Center in Guam. Typhoon Louise (1945), which hit the U.S. fleet off Okinawa in October 1945. Joint Typhoon Warning Center References Printed media Adamson, Hans Christian, George Francis Kosco. Halsey's Typhoons: A Firsthand Account of How Two Typhoons, More Powerful than the Japanese, Dealt Death and Destruction to Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet; New York: Crown Publishers; 1967 Baldwin, Hanson W. Sea Fights and Shipwrecks; Hanover House; 1955 Brown, David. Warship Losses of World War II; Naval Institute Press; 1990; Calhoun, C. Raymond. Typhoon, the Other Enemy: The Third Fleet and the Pacific Storm of December 1944 ; Naval Institute Press; September 1981; Cressman, Robert J. The Official Chronology of the U. S. Navy in World War II; Naval Institute Press; 2000; Drury, Bob and Tom Clavin. "How Lieutenant Ford Saved His Ship", The New York Times, December 28, 2006 Drury, Bob and Tom Clavin.