NAVAL COMMANDER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4528, 26 January 1942, Page 6

NAVAL COMMANDER

AMERICAN PACIFIC FLEET ADMIRAL E. J. KING EXPERIENCE IN AIR ARM One of the greatest qualifications for a leader in the type of warfare which holds on the seas to-day is an appreciation of the possibilities, and the limitations, of the use of aircraft against warships. For that reason Admiral Ernest J. King, who was recently app.ointed Admiral commanding the United States Pacific Fleet, has possibly the best qualifications of any sea commander, Allied or enemy, on service in the war. Admiral King replaced Admiral H. Kimmel in the command, following the Japanese attack which surprised the United States ships in. Pearl Harbour, but the effect on the scope of his duties of the recent creation of an Allied naval command under Admiral Thomas Hart in the southwest Pacific is not yet announced. Admiral King, who is 63 years of age, entered Annapolis Naval Academy at the age of 18 years, says Joseph J. Thorndike in Life, and headed his class in each of the four years qf his course, being cadet lieu-tenant-commander, or official leader of the class, in his senior year. In the summer vacation of his last year came the United States ’war with Spain, and, on board the cruiser San Francisco, he spent the last night of hostilities on the blockade of Havana harbour, under the fire of the guns of the forts. It was not until twenty years later that he underwent a similar experience, when, in a party of officers who had been invited with Admiral Mayo to witness the bombardment of Ostend by British ships, he stood beside Admiral Jellicoe when a shell fell close to the destroyer Broke, on which the party was accommodated. VARIED EXPERIENCE Up to the end of the 1914-1918 war Admiral King was engaged entirely on sea duties, the period of hostilities giving him first-hand experience of the war against U-boats in the Atlantic. After the war, however, he was called .ashore to take charge of the post-graduate school at Annapolis, training selected officers in engineering and other professional branches. Later he commanded the submarine base at New London, Connecticut, and gained the Distinguished Service Medal and Gold Star (equal to the British bar) for successful salvage work. At this stage Admiral King made an important decision. He, in company with a few other officers of standing in the United States Navy, answered the call for volunteers for mature officers in the fast-expanding Navy Air Force, and joined the Pansacola Naval Air Training School. He earned his “ wings,” and thereafter rose rapidly in this branch of the service, being given command of the aircraft carrier Lexington in 1930. When, in 1933, President Roosevelt was confronted with a list of candidates for the important post of Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, really the top job of the naval air service, he rejected all of them because there was not a single Admiral among them who could fly, and appointed Admiral King over their heads. He had just completed the senior officers’ course at the Naval War College. After two successful years in the post he was returned to sea duties in command of the aircraft of

the Scouting Force, and later of the Battle Force. When the United States was developing an air defence plan for the northern Pacific ii was Admiral King, with a party of officers, who spent months selecting sites in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. In 1938 and 1939 he commandetl the five aircraft carriers then in commission, and developed their co-or-dination with the other warships. RECENT COMMANDS Before his appointment to the Pacific command Admiral King commanded the Atlantic section of the fleet, being entrusted with the. implementation of President Roosevelt’s “ shoot on sight ” orders against Nazi submarines and aircraft in the Battle of the Atlantic. Admiral King is a proud believer in the striking potentialities of the navaf air arm he has had so big a part in moulding, and is a zealous defender of the principle of separate air units for the land and sea services. The aircraft carriers, he says, are an integral component of naval offensive power, and must be directed h- the same commander as the fighting ships. Two phrases of the Admiral are already enshrined in United States naval history. The first was the final sentence of a memorandum of his instructions on “ Exercise of Command—Excess of Detail in Orders and Instructions.” The memorandum recorded his view that officers should be told what to do and not how to do it. He concluded: “ Stop Nursing Them.” The other watchword is: “ Do the best you can with what you have.” The latter saying came back at him when he was appointed to the Atlantic Command to look after the patrols in the Battle of the Atlantic. When he called at the White House to talk over the job with the President the question of the size of his force came up. “ That’s a bitr slice of bread you are giving me,” he said, “ and—little butter.” At a later meeting the President asked him: “ How do you like the butter you’re getting ? ” The Admiral was ready with an answer: “ The butter’s fine,” he said, “ but you keep on giving me more bread.” A strong disciplinarian in peacetime, Admiral King is admirably fit-

ted for war command. In peace-time, when personnel valued their weekends ashore, the Admiral would often order departures on Sunday afternoon instead of the Monday morning—just to be “ ornery,” some officers thought. When a man was due for leave he got leave whether he wanted it or not, and no exchanges were permittedOften when something goes wrong the Admiral calls in the offender and listens to his explanations, and then utters one icy word: “ Why ? ” He is aware of his reputation as a hard master, and is not displeased to have it so. He has no belief in soft commanders. He is never unjust or unreasonable, but is hard on negligence or xziness. If an officer has done his best, even a poor best, he is not blamed.