In retirement and with time to reflect, Lockwood accepted that Operation Barney, though a brilliant tactical success, had not brought Japan to her knees, as he had once believed it would. And while he never doubted that the Hellcats had performed magnificently, it must surely have troubled him that the mission he had conceived and worked so hard to launch had been neither the crowning achievement of the Pacific submarine war nor free of controversy. Lockwood, justifiably proud of his accomplishments and those of the submarine force, was sensitive to this controversy. Questions, especially those regarding what he and the Navy’s senior commanders expected of Operation Barney, should be considered in light of what Admiral Nimitz and Admiral King knew about the atomic bomb. As noted earlier, King and Nimitz had been told that its use on Japan would end the war. Lockwood was not privy to this information, saying that the bomb had come as a complete surprise. Operation Barney had been planned and approved far in advance of any information about the bomb divulged to Nimitz and King.
