[dropcap]A[/dropcap]dmiral James Otto Richardson met with Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Jan. 5, 1941 and for the second time in three months tried to convince the President that the Pacific Fleet was a sitting duck at Pearl Harbor.

Joe Richardson was born in Paris in 1879, and that northeast Texas town was where he grew up and attended public school.  A brilliant student, he was singled out by his congressman for a hard-to-come-by appointment to the United States Naval Academy.

Shortly before his ...